Official Time Warner Cable Thread

[Marslauncher]

Post Deleted Per Request Of Supervisor.

[cr33p]

Hello all, I wanted to see if anyone had any intel on TWC in the north west are of San Antonio, my mother will be purchasing a Tivo HD unit here shortly, she doesnt know jack about cable cards or SDV, so I was hoping someone out there knows some answers

1. Are there M cards available?
2. Is TWC running SDV in that area already?
3. Whats the pricing like? Any addl costs for cable cards?

Thanks

[Marslauncher]

Post Deleted Per Request Of Supervisor.

[cr33p]

SDV = switched digital video, meaning for example 100 channels but only 10 pipes, a device switches the head end to allow a certain channell to come down the available piope. It allows the cable co. to maximize bandwidth.

[Marslauncher]

Ok thats what I thought, but we just call it switched video no acronyms.

[Combat Medic]

Hello all, I wanted to see if anyone had any intel on TWC in the north west are of San Antonio, my mother will be purchasing a Tivo HD unit here shortly, she doesnt know jack about cable cards or SDV, so I was hoping someone out there knows some answers

1. Are there M cards available?
2. Is TWC running SDV in that area already?
3. Whats the pricing like? Any addl costs for cable cards?

Thanks

I am using TWC-SA.
1. Yes, and I have one. Cool thing was that I was able to self install it without any arm twisting at all.
2. Yes. Nothing life altering is on it yet.
3. I think my card is in the $2 area.

[MickeS]

Hello all, I wanted to see if anyone had any intel on TWC in the north west are of San Antonio, my mother will be purchasing a Tivo HD unit here shortly, she doesnt know jack about cable cards or SDV, so I was hoping someone out there knows some answers

1. Are there M cards available?
2. Is TWC running SDV in that area already?
3. Whats the pricing like? Any addl costs for cable cards?

Thanks

If you get an M card, the cost is only $2.73/month for the one card. If you get two S-cards (no reason to unless you have a Series 3 like me), the fee is $2.73/card + an "Additional Outlet" fee for the second card, which is around $2. So try and get the M-card if you can...

[matthewwhite]

Time Warner South West Ohio killed my cable cards Monday.

I lost about 1/2 of my digital channels monday and the rest went out by the next day.

I live in a former Adelphia area I suspect there was a change in their system.

I have MOTO cable cards and I think all I need to for them to repair and authorize my account but I can't get them to listen and they say the need a truck roll. The 1st appointment is available next Tuesday.

both cards were reading subscribed but not authorized now 1 is reading unsubscribed and 2 still subscribed but both no authorization.

I think if they'll just send them a hit they'd work but they say that can do nothing but roll a truck.

On the phone they said they were having a cable card problem and the phone support was walking through a help process but it turns out that she could only pair a cable card if it was in their cable box but because it was in another device I'd need a truck roll.

[cr33p]

If you get an M card, the cost is only $2.73/month for the one card. If you get two S-cards (no reason to unless you have a Series 3 like me), the fee is $2.73/card + an "Additional Outlet" fee for the second card, which is around $2. So try and get the M-card if you can...

Thanks for all the info guys :)

[misc720]

After reading this thread for weeks, waffling, then finally buying a Tivo HD, now I too have a nightmare.

I'm in North Hollywood. I think it is TW "East San Fernando". I first called a week ago and they said they were out of stock of cable cards, and I should call back in a few days, and then I could just come pick up the cable cards at a local office.

So I called a few days later, and they told me they were never out of stock, and they had to send out a tech, so we scheduled it.

Tech came this morning, she tried a couple S cards, sat on the phone for a couple hours, wasn't able to get all the channels. Told me she needed to go find an M card. So she leaves for a couple hours. I leave for work and let my roommate deal with it. I get back from work, and roommate tells me that they finally put him on the phone with a person at dispatch, and -get this- dispatch claims they just had a meeting last night where TW decided they are no longer supporting cable cards in Tivo because they have a new HD DVR box themselves (and we can get it for only $12/month, of course). She told him it is simply impossible now to get all the channels (even basic cable channels) through cable cards in a Tivo. I actually have a receipt here with handwriting on it: "you can no longer receive channels through Tivo".

So I called TW tech support tonight, verified they have the correct host ID, and that's about all they will do. He claimed to send an authorization signal while we were on the phone, but nothing happened. On the pairing screen it still says "contact cable company". And on the conditional access screen it shows Val ? and no subscription info. So I have another tech coming out in 9 days now. What a pain.

Any suggestions? It seems like most people are able to fix it themselves on the phone with the cable company.

Thanks for any help.

[Aydin]

Found this thread via random googling. I'm very frustrated! My experience so far:

-- I was conned into using the TWC DVR. I held out for three months, but I just bit the bullet and bought an HD Tivo.
-- I called TWC and scheduled an appointment. They didn't have anything for a week.
-- The day of the appointment, I unhooked the old DVR, set it aside, got the TiVo to the point where it needed to be, and waited.
-- The installer actually showed up early, which was nice. He had never seen a TiVo before (or at least not an S3), and looked for the slots in the back. I managed to eventually convince him the slots were in the front.
-- He did everything he could to try and bypass the firmware upgrade screen, which was just silly; if it needs an upgrade, it's going to have to go eventually, so what are you trying to accomplish? Based on my quick googling, I told him it could take up to forty minutes and he wasn't thrilled. But, after six attempts to try and bypass it somehow, he just gave in.
-- It finally finished, but we didn't get any channels and it wasn't working properly.
-- He read the serial number off to somebody at TWC, and they said they didn't have any record of it. They still tried to make it work, but their ultimate conclusion was that the cablecards were somehow fake (!!!). The contractor promised to come by tomorrow and get me hooked up with one that works. Without me noticing, he takes the old PVR back, meaning I have no TV at all.
-- I get a phone call today from the contractors, letting me know they're out of cable cards and have no idea when they're getting more. Don't call them, they'll call me when they have more. But, if I want, they can set me up with a TWC DVR until some cablecards come in, at some undefined point in the future.

GOOD TIMES.

[trininuyawka]

OMG!!! I can't believe TWCNYC actually did something right. The guy that stopped by was great. Finished the install in under 15 mins. All channels coming in fine thus far. I'm pretty impressed with the field tech.

Wow! :eek: I have an install tomorrow in Queens and if it goes half as smoothly as yours did, I'll be impressed. Why does it feel like I'm rolling the dice when it comes to TWC and cable card installation? It's been over a year since the Series 3 came out and there's STILL drama for many folks. Incredible.

[skaggs]

This morning, Albany TWC added 4 new HD channels using Switched Digital Video (SDV) technology, so we now have 13 HD channels using SDV and 2 HD On Demand channels, which makes them unavailable to me with my HD TiVo.

When is that dongle thing going to be released? ...not soon enough!

The current HD lineup from Albany TWC:
1800 HD PPV
1801 Showcase HD On Demand
1805 TBS HD
1806 WRGB-DT (CBS)
1808 WXXA-DT (FOX)
1810 WTEN-DT (ABC)
1811 WMHT-DT (PBS)
1813 WNYT-DT (NBC)
1815 WCWN-DT (WB)
1823 Weather Channel HD SDV
1827 TNT HD
1837 Discovery HD Theater
1838 A&E HD
1839 History Channel HD SDV
1840 MHD (MTV HD)
1841 HGTV HD SDV
1842 Food Network HD SDV
1846 CNN HD SDV
1847 MSG HD
1851 Fox Business News HD SDV
1855 MOJO (included in TWC's HD Tier at $3.95 per month)
1857 HDnet (included in TWC's HD Tier at $3.95 per month)
1858 HDnet Movies (included in TWC's HD Tier at $3.95 per month)
1860 Universal HD (included in TWC's HD Tier at $3.95 per month)
1864 Lifetime Movie Network HD SDV
1866 SportNetNY HD
1867 YES HD
1869 ESPN HD
1870 ESPN2 HD
1873 Versus/Golf HD SDV
1874 Outdoor HD (must subscribe to Sports Tier) SDV
1875 NHL HD (must subscribe to Sports Tier) SDV
1876 National Geographic HD SDV
1880 HBO HD
1885 Showtime HD
1890 Starz HD SDV
1891 Starz West HD SDV

[BruceShultes]

I get back from work, and roommate tells me that they finally put him on the phone with a person at dispatch, and -get this- dispatch claims they just had a meeting last night where TW decided they are no longer supporting cable cards in Tivo because they have a new HD DVR box themselves (and we can get it for only $12/month, of course). She told him it is simply impossible now to get all the channels (even basic cable channels) through cable cards in a Tivo. I actually have a receipt here with handwriting on it: "you can no longer receive channels through Tivo".

So I called TW tech support tonight, verified they have the correct host ID, and that's about all they will do. He claimed to send an authorization signal while we were on the phone, but nothing happened. On the pairing screen it still says "contact cable company". And on the conditional access screen it shows Val ? and no subscription info. So I have another tech coming out in 9 days now. What a pain.

Any suggestions? It seems like most people are able to fix it themselves on the phone with the cable company.

Thanks for any help.
Interesting how TW thinks they have they right to violate federal law. They have to support cablecards and the Tivo HD and S3 are both cablecard approved devices.

The only way you shouldn't be able to receive any channels is if they have changed their full channel lineup to SDV.

[mmcgown]

In response to your comments that TW is no longer supporting TiVo and cable cards, show your local reps at TW this quote:

“We’re strongly committed to ensuring that our subscribers who use CableCARD-enabled retail devices, including TiVo DVRs, have a satisfying and successful installation experience,” added Mike LaJoie, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Office, Time Warner Cable. McSlarrow and Rogers said that cable and TiVo representatives are committed to continuing a dialogue to resolve any future technology issues that may arise.

You can find the full story here:

http://www.ncta.com/ReleaseType/MediaRelease/4439.aspx?hidenavlink=true&type=reltyp1

[timckelley]

Yes, it looks like you need to make the rep eat crow. And when he eats crow, you need to ask him how it tastes. :)

[mmcgown]

Just one further note--it is almost stupid for all of us to put up with inconsistent replies from local Time Warner locations. Mine in Austin happened to do pretty well. But if you're having TWC/TiVo/cablecard issues and you are not getting satisfaction from your local office, call TWC headquarters in Stamford CT and let them know of your problem. It seems likely that if enough people complain, things will change.

Mike LaJoie seems to be the man in charge, and while you probably won't get to talk to him, there's no doubt his office staff will recognize a surge in calls complaining about locally inconsistent cablecard policies. As nearly as I can determine, his office number is 203-328-0600.

It makes no sense for all of us to have all of these problems with a company that purports to provide its customers with good service. Let this man know if your local TWC company is not providing you with prompt and efficient service.

[mmcgown]

I know I am replying to my own message, but after I wrote it, and through the modern miracle of accidental communication, I actually talked to Mike LaJoie (he hit callback, I think).

In a nutshell, he confirmed what I have said. Without trying to quote him or discredit his wish to stay out of the limelight, it seemed clear to me that TWC is firmly committed to cablecards and other local boxes. What I heard was--if TWC has to pay $400 to supply a DVR to a customer and fix it if it breaks, why wouldn't we be happy for the customer to buy it himself?

I think any of you with local TWC stumbling blocks ought to seriously consider investing in a long-distance phone call to TWC's Stamford CT HQ office. Sometimes it takes a kick in the pants for the local offices to fall into line, but you will be doing all of us a favor if you make yourself heard.

I'm not a TW stockholder or even one of their best supporters, but I do think that when they are prodded, they can perform. It's the prodding that they need.

If any of you have ongoing cablecard/TiVo card problems, I hope you will reply to me privately, because although I can't make any promises, I may have a small pipeline into getting things sorted out.

[TxPres]

On Tuesday I had TWC here in Austin come out for the initial install. He was running real late (about 8pm) but did show up. The Tivo had been up and running using OTA and analog cable for nearly a week, so no guided setup was required.

He installed an M-card, called in the info, checked a few channels, and left.
I was out of town Wednesday so did not check things out. On Thursday, I noticed that I was not receiving some HD channels that were not Switched Video. :eek:

I called TWC and he send a couple of ?hits? which did not change anything. Then they scheduled a truck roll for the next morning.
Tech showed up this morning and switched out the M-card. No change. Then he wanted to check/replace all splitters. Said it was probably a signal strength issue. I told him to run a temp line from the curb directly to Tivo rather than crawl around in my attic. He did and there was no change. :D After that, it was pretty obvious that the problem was either a CC isssue or a problem with the "office".

After a couple of hours with the tech talking to the office, they finally sent down 39 EMM's (?) and that fixed things.

Not sure why they could not have tried that when I was on the phone with them the day before. Would have been a whole lot cheaper than sending a tech out.

Currently I have the channels I am supposed to have. :) However, TWC in Austin is always adding channels to the switched list. I was told that new HD channels would be switched.
In both cases the tech was very nice and courtious. The phone tech was also.

Sure hope they get that USB dongle out soon.

[mmcgown]

I'm also in Austin and had a similar experience when the first non-TWC contractor showed up with cablecards and spent a long time on the phone with some intemediate tech.

I don't know what they are doing exactly, but it seems that TW is allowing contractors limited access to the "hit the card" capability, and it doesn't seem to work.

I spent an entire day listening to an Eagle contractor calling his boss to "hit the card" and it never worked.

But when I finally reached a true network guy at TWC-Austin, it worked instantly.

[timckelley]

Ever since I got my TiVo HD a few months ago, I've been wanting to buy an HD TV, but for now I've just got my analog cable hooked up to my TiVo HD, and all my TV's are SD. After reading these last several posts, I'm starting to think it'd be worth if it I at least wait until the dongle comes out before I go out and buy an HDTV.

Actually, I think there's one or two HD channels I can get through my analog cable already (with no cable card!) but that's not very many channels to justify buying an HDTV.

[mmcgown]

Hi Tim,

I don't agree with you....if you've already got a TiVoHD, then you are shortchanging your household if you don't get an HDTV. I'm in Austin, and with my MultiStream cable card, I'm getting a great picture on all but a very few switched video channels.

If you are willing to go through a week or so of pain for getting a MultiStream cable card installed, you will be impressed by the quality of the picture and sound. True, there are some SDV channels that you won't get for a while, but you will get all of the premium channels that you choose to pay for in stunning quality, and you will get the local channels in whatever quality that they choose to broadcast.

I understand the economics of buying a new TV. My best advice is to go with Amazon, find their best price, and let their White Glove delivery service WOW you with their low price and their willingness to deliver to your house, set up the new set, and make sure it's working to your satisfaction.

[rlay]

I called TWC today and waited 25 mins just to schedule for my cable service to be disconnected, and their system dropped my call while I was waiting....and when I finally spoke to a human, it doesn't even get switch off until mid-next week...plus I have to bring the CableCards and Motorola box back to their offices. I'm keeping the RoadRunner for the time being simply because its been reliable and my job pays for it.... but any signs of trouble on that end, and I'll be setting up DSL with AT&T.

They didn't even ask me why I was canceling (They probably looked at all of the CableCard related service calls I logged).

In other news, DirecTV was installed 2 days after I ordered it by a very knowledgeable technician, who informed me that they will be releasing a Windows Media Server interface (announced at CES) which will give the system "to go" functionality. They did need to route another cable which was unexpected, but he did an excellent job hiding it. I get about 85 HD channels including locals I wasn't getting in HD with TWC. The compression/pixelation is noticeably improved (especially on SD channels and fast action HD scenes). I also like the way the system can be set to show the stream in its native format and allow for cropping, stretching, and pillowboxing....both on the TV and in the DVR itself. The HR-21 DVR interface is pretty good with a 320GB hard disk and SATA expandability. It's probably 75% on-par with the Tivo..... no suggestions, 30-second skip, and a few other nit-picky things...but it does the job, and there is so much more HD programming that it's worth the trade off.

I'm keeping the Tivo and the service for the next few months until I pony up for a Sonos music system or a Logitech Squeeze Box Duet. I like having Rhapsody, the extra tuners for OTA channels+Tivo-to-Go for those shows, and maybe they do something with downloaded content.... I might splurge and transfer the service to an S2 just for Tivo-to-Go....Does anyone know if Tivo has plans to put Rhapsody on S2 boxes?

[FrogGremlin]

My son's new TiVoHD (Christmas gift) led him to cancel TW in El Paso. After getting the "no cable cards, no TiVo support" lies from the local office, he decided to go with DirecTV. The main satellite drawback had always been the lack of locals in HD. Now, with an old set of rabbit-ears (and direct line-of-sight to all the transmitting towers on the hills overlooking the city), he uses the TiVo for all the networks, and an inexpensive satellite package for everything else.

[verbaldave]

Two contractors successfully installed a Motorola MCard into my TiVo HD this morning with minimal issues! (in North Dallas)

They showed up 30 minutes into the 4 hour window (nice), and told me they had experience with installing CCs in Tivos. I was glad, but still cautious. After getting off the phone the first time they looked at some channels and said I was good to go, and started to leave. But I told them to check the "digital tier" channels (channels that you can't get out of the wall, and need a digital cable box for), and they weren't coming in yet. (my guess is that the Card was "Validated", but not "Authorized"). After waiting on them for about 10 minutes, I told Guy 2 to have them send an "initialization". After a 5 minute wait, everything was good to go. The whole thing only took 30 minutes. :D

Under the "Conditional Access" screen I've got
"Val:V", "CP:Enabled", and "Auth:S" From what I've read, those are the correct values. The three things they needed were the serial # off the card, the Host ID, and the Data # (both are found in the CableCARD Pairing screen).

I currently have an SD TV, and have no premium or HD channels, so maybe that has something to do with it. I'll have my fingers crossed tho when I get an HDTV, and upgrade to the HD tier.

I'll echo the previous poster who said that contractors are able to send "hits" to CableCARDs. Their support people were sending all the hits, but eventually had to call TWC to finally get it working.

When none of my "digital tier" channels were coming in, the contractors seemed stumped. Their installation support people told them everything looked good. So Guy 1 called TWC directly and a talked to a really bitchy woman who said installers couldn't call directly, and that only the contractor's support people could call. So they called back to their support people and this TW chick had already called to hassle them about Guy 1 calling! What a ho! He was just trying to skip the middle man for the good of the customer (and his Saturday) and he got nothing but grief :)

Thanks to everyone on this forum, and others! Because of you I was well educated and knew to stand firm and not let the installer leave before all the proper CC values were displayed!

(The guy asked me if I worked at Best Buy or something since I knew so much about "this stuff" HA! tivocommunity.com baby!)

[Tom_The_BBT]

Im a Charter Technician living in a Time warner system in Eastern NC .I had my CC install today on my Tivo HD ,took about an hour , They sent an inhouse tech who saw my work truck in the drive and knew I knew what I was talking about. It was his second Tivo CC install so he let me do most of the navigating while he made the phone calls the first card went in without a hitch ,Second one wouldnt work at first I made him have dispatch remove it from the account ( Host and data #s) and put it back on after removing it once, then we ran through auth again still no pic the dispatcher figured it out she hadnt balanced services for the account with the outlets, Also I didnt have them remove Their HDC 8300 OPAC DVR from my account yet so they wouldnt screw the outlets up that way either,Went pretty smooth and the tech was good cause he was willing to listen .All in all not a bad experience.Believe me I know having done them that CC installs can be a nightmare ,One problem though after guided set up no program data fro NGC HD ,FSN HD,and HGTV HD but these are new to our line up so I asumme this is an update snafu with zap2it or something

[mercurial]

Is it just me or has some of the framerates on the digital channels dropped in the Raleigh/Cary area? I wonder if they're compressing the heck out of things to get all those HD's online without SDV....

[trininuyawka]

If anybody gets a TWNYC tech named "Danny" as their installer, you are in good hands! This past Saturday he showed up at 9:55am for a 10-2pm window. Quickly knew what to do and where to go with my TiVo HD. Popped in a single M-card then waited for it to update it's firmware but after about 15 minutes it seemed to hang at 99%. Uh-oh. Restarted the TiVo and the firmware restarted back at 0%. UGH! But this time around it went faster and we got to 100%. Called dispatch for authorization. Blank screen even on basics like CBS, NBC, NY1, etc. Right away he knew the authorization didn't go through. Called dispatch again to re-authorize and this time we got the basics. Went to TNT on channel 3 and blank screen. Right away he said he saw this before and called dispatch to connect him to the IT Dept. Not sure what they did on their end but low and behold, 5 minutes later, all the channels are coming through (I don't subscribe to any premiums). So for one last test I ask him to go to 702 (CBS HD) to test out some HD channels. As the Tivo flickers to adjust the resolution to HD from SD, it reboots itself! UH-OH again! Don't worry he says...He's seen this before too. Wait a couple of minutes to let the TiVo power back up and immediately switch to 702. A little flicker and yes! We're in business! All in all, the whole install took about 45 minutes. He was calm, collected, knew what he was doing and was on a friendly, first name basis with dispatch and IT. Bravo Danny for all your help and expertise!

All that's left is to finish watching the last couple of shows recorded on the TW DVR and then drop-kick that piece of crap back to TW. Couldn't help but smile all weekend as I re-programmed my Harmony 880 and re-established my season passes....using HD channels where available.

If there was a "Danny" in every major TW service region, the world would be a beautiful place. =o)

[juggler314]

Can anyone confirm if they have setup my account the correct way?

Prior to switching to CC only I had a cable box and the pricing for the DTValue pack was 61.50 - single charge + some taxes.

So I go the CC route with my TivoHD and now my bill reads:

Cable Card $1.75
DTV SERVICE $10.95
BASIC SERVICE $14.25
STANDARD SERVICE $39.90

Which totaly 66.85 + tax. So now I'm paying *more* - this seems wrong to me...

I did keep the cable box overlap for a few days, so this is my new bill after returing the cable box. The tech did seem a bit confused over how to "swap" out the converter for the CC.

Thanks for any help.

[Mindflux]

I'm in the process of buying an S3 HD TiVo box, but TW-Austin is giving me the run around. They want 35 dollars for some mug to come out and slide a cable card into my TiVo box?

I was also told I wont get a number of channels, I guess those are the two-way channels (OnDemand, etc).. but the list seemed mighty long.

Am I getting the run around here or what? I'm not paying anyone 35 bucks to come slide a card into a device slot.

[cr33p]

I'm in the process of buying an S3 HD TiVo box, but TW-Austin is giving me the run around. They want 35 dollars for some mug to come out and slide a cable card into my TiVo box?

I was also told I wont get a number of channels, I guess those are the two-way channels (OnDemand, etc).. but the list seemed mighty long.

Am I getting the run around here or what? I'm not paying anyone 35 bucks to come slide a card into a device slot.

Welcome to the getting ripped off for knowing more than your installer will :) Seems pretty normal, some folks have been able to pick up cards themselve and do a self install but there is no rhyme or reason why some areas alow this and some dont.

[Mindflux]

The S3 can use M-cards, but that model treats them as S-cards, ie, you'll need two M-cards to use the dual-tuner functionality.

I've got two S3's with Time-Warner, each with two M-cards, working correctly.

TTYL
David

I was told by a TiVO rep that this was a problem with an older software rev. He suggested that when I get my TiVO box to let it update to the latest TiVo software before putting in a cable card, after that I can run a single M-card. He said if you put the cards in before the update it causes some problem requiring two cards to be run even if it's an "M".

[cr33p]

I was told by a TiVO rep that this was a problem with an older software rev. He suggested that when I get my TiVO box to let it update to the latest TiVo software before putting in a cable card, after that I can run a single M-card. He said if you put the cards in before the update it causes some problem requiring two cards to be run even if it's an "M".


Only the Tivo HD can run with a single M card, the S3 Classic still would need either 2 M cards or 2 S cards, regardless of software rev's

[Mindflux]

Only the Tivo HD can run with a single M card, the S3 Classic still would need either 2 M cards or 2 S cards, regardless of software rev's



Well I'm looking at the S3 HD (300hr). So this still requires two M or two S's?

[cr33p]

Well I'm looking at the S3 HD (300hr). So this still requires two M or two S's?

That is correct sir. Sorry. Some have said in the future that maybe the S3 will get M card functionality to utilize the dual stream of the card. Who knows why they couldnt backport the drivers to the original platform.

[JYoung]

I'm in North Hollywood. I think it is TW "East San Fernando". I first called a week ago and they said they were out of stock of cable cards, and I should call back in a few days, and then I could just come pick up the cable cards at a local office.

So I called a few days later, and they told me they were never out of stock, and they had to send out a tech, so we scheduled it.

Tech came this morning, she tried a couple S cards, sat on the phone for a couple hours, wasn't able to get all the channels. Told me she needed to go find an M card. So she leaves for a couple hours. I leave for work and let my roommate deal with it. I get back from work, and roommate tells me that they finally put him on the phone with a person at dispatch, and -get this- dispatch claims they just had a meeting last night where TW decided they are no longer supporting cable cards in Tivo because they have a new HD DVR box themselves (and we can get it for only $12/month, of course). She told him it is simply impossible now to get all the channels (even basic cable channels) through cable cards in a Tivo. I actually have a receipt here with handwriting on it: "you can no longer receive channels through Tivo".

So I called TW tech support tonight, verified they have the correct host ID, and that's about all they will do. He claimed to send an authorization signal while we were on the phone, but nothing happened. On the pairing screen it still says "contact cable company". And on the conditional access screen it shows Val ? and no subscription info. So I have another tech coming out in 9 days now. What a pain.

Any suggestions? It seems like most people are able to fix it themselves on the phone with the cable company.

Thanks for any help.

Absolute crap on Time-Warner's part.
I have one neighbor (also a forum member) who has cablecards working fine in the East San Fernando with his Series 3s.

Don't be afraid not only to threaten but follow through with complaining to the FCC and the Los Angeles Cable commission on TW's refusal to support cablecards.
Time-Warner's already been taking heat from the City due to a rash of service complaints from the former Adelphia customers.

[Yosemitebob]

I had my S3 HD box up and going with basic cable for about a week before the CC install and experienced no problems. Now a few days later I am seeing pixelation, followed by a 5 second fast forward, then no sound for about 15 or more seconds. It seems random and it occurred twice last night during Comanche Moon:mad:

I live in Leawood Ks which is in TWC KC territory. I'm hoping there is an update that tivo can help me with and that it's not the m card because I don't want to be charged to walk another tech through the install process! Have any other TWC KC customers experienced this?

BTW I'm using this on a SDTV at a fixed 480i

unrelated but I'm in the market for a 32" HDTV if anyone knows of a good brand or model please let me know.

[calab]

I have an HDTV and am about to hook up my HD TiVo to it. I have the Broadcast Basic package from TW Albany (NY). So I get the local stations plus a handful more (cspan, cw...). It's the most basic analog package required by law but not advertised by TW. Since I bought an HDTV, I also now get the local stations HD digital on 18.6, 18.10, etc.

I called TW to ask whether I'd need a cable card to use my TiVo program guide and they claimed that I wasn't supposed to be getting the local channels in HD under the plan I have. This isn't right, is it? I thought that the local stations had to be passed through unencrypted. I assumed if the channels are offered in HD, then the cable company must send them to me that way. Am I wrong?

[RTPGiants]

Just got an HD, and don't have the cards yet. I can get the CBS affiliate (WRAL) on the expected 5-1, etc. channels (after scanning). However, I can't get it to see the other affiliate channels FOX, ABC, etc. which should be channels like 11-1 and 50-1, etc. Anyone able to get those?

[DrWho453]

I live out near mini-city near the triangle town center and I pickup the following channels OTA using an little table top indoor antenna:

5.x (CBS)
11.x (ABC)
17.x (nbc)
22.1 (CW)
28.x (myrdc)
50.x (fox)

Might be able to pick up others with a larger indoor or outdoor antenna. Just make sure when you set up your tivo that you set it up for antenna or antenna +cable if you are going to use both cable and antenna

[RTPGiants]

Yeah, I guess I could do that, but doesn't TW have an obligation to send the HD on the network affiliates? It seems weird to only get CBS, PBS, and CW ... obviously they're sending some, but no ABC, FOX, NBC?

I'll eventually (next week) get a CableCard setup, but it'd be nice to watch football in HD through Tivo this weekend before that.

[DrWho453]

Yeah, I guess I could do that, but doesn't TW have an obligation to send the HD on the network affiliates? It seems weird to only get CBS, PBS, and CW ... obviously they're sending some, but no ABC, FOX, NBC?

I'll eventually (next week) get a CableCard setup, but it'd be nice to watch football in HD through Tivo this weekend before that.

ok, now you are talking about something different. Before you said that you were trying to get 11.1 50.1 etc. I thought you were trying to get them from the antenna and not the cable. Sorry. Those come in over the air and not on the cable. I never tried to get those channels through the cable itself. I have both an antenna and cable with cable cards installed. Before I had the cable cards installed, I used the antenna to pick up these other stations. I believe time warner is supposed to send them with a clear QAM so you can see them but I am not sure how they are sending them. I just now when I watch them on cable they are on 211 - 257.

Edit: Also please note that you don't need an HD labled antenna to get HD channels. HD antennas may be optimized to get the signals but if you have any indoor tv antenna, you can use it. I am using an antenna that I have had since 1995. It is amplified though the amplification is turned off right now. It sits right behind my tv and picks up the HD channels without any problems. It is funny to see the analog channel like channel 5 with static and then go to 5.1 and see it crystal clear :)

[RTPGiants]

Sorry if there was confusion.

Basically, I set it as Cable only. I then went through guided setup and had no HD channels. I then let Tivo scan the channels, and it "discovered" some channels like:
4-1
4-2
5-1
5-2
5-3
...

Tuning 5-1 is the HD feed of WRAL, as you'd expect. FOX should be 50-1, 50-2, etc. but they're not found apparently.

Through my HD box (not through Tivo obviously), the HD channels are in the 200s as you noted but during the cable scan, Tivo said it "found" channels in the 200s, but for whatever reason, it won't allow those to be added via the channels you get list. The top channel there is 102-8.

[DrWho453]

Sorry if there was confusion.

Basically, I set it as Cable only. I then went through guided setup and had no HD channels. I then let Tivo scan the channels, and it "discovered" some channels like:
4-1
4-2
5-1
5-2
5-3
...

Tuning 5-1 is the HD feed of WRAL, as you'd expect. FOX should be 50-1, 50-2, etc. but they're not found apparently.

Through my HD box (not through Tivo obviously), the HD channels are in the 200s as you noted but during the cable scan, Tivo said it "found" channels in the 200s, but for whatever reason, it won't allow those to be added via the channels you get list. The top channel there is 102-8.

Hmm, interesting, if you go to the tivo system information and go to diagnostics after changing to 5-1, does the signal source say cable or antenna? and what kind of signal strength do you get. If I go to 5.1 I get a source of terrestrial and modulation of 8 VSB

[RTPGiants]

Hmm, interesting, if you go to the tivo system information and go to diagnostics after changing to 5-1, does the signal source say cable or antenna? and what kind of signal strength do you get. If I go to 5.1 I get a source of terrestrial and modulation of 8 VSB

Just to be clear, it's listed as 5-1, not 5.1

Source is "cbl" and signal strength is hovers between 98 and 100 and says "digital signal acquired".

[Welshdog]

If you are willing to go through a week or so of pain for getting a MultiStream cable card installed, you will be impressed by the quality of the picture and sound. True, there are some SDV channels that you won't get for a while, but you will get all of the premium channels that you choose to pay for in stunning quality, and you will get the local channels in whatever quality that they choose to broadcast.



Umm, I've seen what the HD coming out of digital cable looks like and stunning is not the word I would use. I work at a post production house in Austin and we make HD commercials and videos. We have a 46" LCD panel in our lobby that we sometimes feed TWC digital cable HD. Sometimes, the channels look nice, but don't look at them too closely! The amount of compression applied to the video to squeeze it into that cable is huge and it shows. To my eye the compression artifacts are plainly obvious. Satellite is not much different. I will admit that some channels look pretty good, but I always manage to see junk in there that is unsightly. Don't get me wrong - I can live with it, but stunning?

Meh.

You want clean HD? Look at OTA HD or BluRay/HD-DVD. Now THAT is what HD should look like. Of course you could watch some stuff on our $80k Sony HDCAM SR tape deck, but it would only make you cry.:D

[DrWho453]

Just to be clear, it's listed as 5-1, not 5.1

Source is "cbl" and signal strength is hovers between 98 and 100 and says "digital signal acquired".

Hmm, thats interesting I guess if I ever remove the cable cards I will have to try and see what I get without the antenna. Didn't realize they were doing that. Oh well.

Also 5-1 and 5.1 are the same. Tivo doesn't have a period key so you have to use the - to replace the . but its all the same. Oh well, maybe someone else on here will no what all the x-x channels are that will work on cable. I know we have a few people here from the raleigh cary and apex areas.

[RTPGiants]

Just to be clear, it's listed as 5-1, not 5.1

Source is "cbl" and signal strength is hovers between 98 and 100 and says "digital signal acquired".

Ok, nevermind, I just s*ck. I had been using a cable feed that was split a lot (strength of about 87 on the 5-1 channel). Changing to a more direct feed got me the higher signal strength and also gave me the 11-x and 50-x channels I expected.

[cableguy763]

Umm, I've seen what the HD coming out of digital cable looks like and stunning is not the word I would use. I work at a post production house in Austin and we make HD commercials and videos. We have a 46" LCD panel in our lobby that we sometimes feed TWC digital cable HD. Sometimes, the channels look nice, but don't look at them too closely! The amount of compression applied to the video to squeeze it into that cable is huge and it shows. To my eye the compression artifacts are plainly obvious. Satellite is not much different. I will admit that some channels look pretty good, but I always manage to see junk in there that is unsightly. Don't get me wrong - I can live with it, but stunning?

Meh.

You want clean HD? Look at OTA HD or BluRay/HD-DVD. Now THAT is what HD should look like. Of course you could watch some stuff on our $80k Sony HDCAM SR tape deck, but it would only make you cry.:D

Welshdog,
Not to throw any rocks, but TWC --DOES NOT--compress any local network feed. They send it out like they get it. The only HD channels that could be clamped or compressed in Austin are the HD SDV channels. Those cannot be received by OTA, so I must assume you are talking about OTA. I have seen plenty of OTA with compression artifacts, especially OTA NBC. So don't look too closely to that.

[Welshdog]

Welshdog,
Not to throw any rocks, but TWC --DOES NOT--compress any local network feed. They send it out like they get it. The only HD channels that could be clamped or compressed in Austin are the HD SDV channels. Those cannot be received by OTA, so I must assume you are talking about OTA. I have seen plenty of OTA with compression artifacts, especially OTA NBC. So don't look too closely to that. Yeah I was speaking more about the non-OTA stuff. I'm probably overly critical.

BTW Cable guy I've been meaning to ask you, my QAM channels seem to be not there lately. Right now all I get is CBS KEYE and the Tivo thinks it is KLRU! The Tivo info is there when I tune the channel but no image appears except for the above mentioned CBS on the wrong channel number. I'm seeing this on both the TVHD and the S3. I'm on TWC analog in Oak Hill.

Any thoughts?

[labatt]

It looks like Time Warner Albany is starting to switch channels over to SDV. Today we lost Nickelodeon and I don't know what else. When you switch to Nickelodeon on a TWC box it has "To start over press SEL" so it looks like they are adding some "features" I don't care about (and am surprised to see when I don't have a DVR sub or a DVR box) to the signal. I'm assuming this means it's using SDV or some proprietary something.

EDIT: It looks like they've been offering the "Start Over" service for a while and I've just never seen it. It's only offered on certain shows, but it looks like it's expanding. When "Start Over" is enabled on a show, you can't access the channel. See http://www.timewarnercable.com/Albany/Products/Cable/start_over/channels.html for a list of channels enabled for "Start Over" at TWC Albany.

[Norm_bone]

UPDATE:

Still no joy. I was on hold for 2 hours last week, and the rep was very patient, tried initializing, but no luck.

TW scheduled a tech appointment. He was late, and spent 45 minutes with no results.

We have another appointment for tomorrow morning, and they're bringing a new card. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

---Norm

Conclusion.

It took a total of 6 visits to get it right. TW tried to blame it on the Tivo, but at least they gamely kept swinging.

In the end, they claimed that much of the complexity was caused by the fact that we were in "an old Adelphia area", which made the settings on the cablecards different. To get things set up "Steve" had to be in the computer room, because he is supposedly "The only person at TW Cincinnati who is authorized to change the listings of the cable cards."

The resolution apparently was to correctly associate the host and data ID's with the server in the computer room. Once this was done, they were activated in 20 minutes.

About a month later, an outage caused them both to stop working. (Along with every other cablecard in the Adelphia area.) Again, working with "Steve", we were able to get them correctly paired in about a half hour. My guess, from what they said, is that the server had been restored from a backup with the wrong information. They commented that the host id the directory was showing was wrong.

I wish I had more useful advice to offer for people getting TW service. About the only suggestions I have are these:


Ask if you're in an old Adelphia area, since that will affect the way the deal with the cards.
If you're having pairing problems, don't bother setting up an appointment for a weekend or evening, since "someone has to be in the computer room"
Be aware that they might try and blame the Tivo, even if it's not the problem.
Make sure and mention that it's for a Tivo upfront, since most of the CC they're installing appear to be on TV's.


With the right guy on the cable end and me reading out the numbers, everything was resolved quickly. Unfortunately, it took a month to get the right guy on the cable end.

[Stuck w TWCNYC]

I'm in Manhattan and have had a Tivo3 mostly working with a single multicast card for a few months now after initially dealing with a few bouts of incompetence at TWC to get it going. I'm still not a satisfied customer. Has anyone else experienced the following?

1. Periodically the cablecard just stops being recognized with a message indicating the service is not communicating with the card. To fix it, I have to reset the Tivo3, which appears to redo all the client/server setup calls (400+ blocks of data over thirty minutes).

2. I feel I'm overpaying. TWC lists a pkg to have home cable for internet and tivo in a package called DTValue, but indicates it is only an option to those with cablebox. Users of cablecard they say must get the channels "ala cart", which in net effect means the first cablecard is ~$22, not $1.75.

3. I pay for HBO but don't see 201 through 207, e.g. HBO2 and other channels as we did before getting rid of the cablebox. We only get 780 (HD HBO). A call to support was fruitless, he said it was the card itself -- wrong answer since 2 independent cards had the same problem (I have a 2nd cablecard on the TV). Completely clueless support, he basically pointed me to the aforementioned DTValue package and remedied with 1 free month of Cinemax, which then became a charge on my next bill. Gee, thanks, TWC!

4. slightly off topic for Tivo, but it seems some knowledgable folks are on this forum. The 2nd cablecard in the TV periodicaly throws error 161-10 onscreen a few times a week. Turning off/on the TV makes it go away.

I've written a long letter off to a "research dept." in Flushing NY, but remain skeptical these clowns have a clue, or more to the point, *care* to have a clue on how to support cablecard, and they don't mind that by their pricing and incompetence they are probably in violation of the 1996 law.

I've never been a big fan of class action suits since going to a competitor is the best method for consumers to show displeasure, but TWC is clearly deserving of one.
These guys need firm message, and for apt. dwellers, satellite is not a realistic competitive alternative, which makes TWC a true monopoly, and one that has run amuck and is not accountable.

Any thoughts are welcome as would word from other NYC residents trying to use cablecards and interested in pursuing legal options.

[misc720]

After reading this thread for weeks, waffling, then finally buying a Tivo HD, now I too have a nightmare.

I'm in North Hollywood. I think it is TW "East San Fernando". I first called a week ago and they said they were out of stock of cable cards, and I should call back in a few days, and then I could just come pick up the cable cards at a local office.

So I called a few days later, and they told me they were never out of stock, and they had to send out a tech, so we scheduled it.

Tech came this morning, she tried a couple S cards, sat on the phone for a couple hours, wasn't able to get all the channels. Told me she needed to go find an M card. So she leaves for a couple hours. I leave for work and let my roommate deal with it. I get back from work, and roommate tells me that they finally put him on the phone with a person at dispatch, and -get this- dispatch claims they just had a meeting last night where TW decided they are no longer supporting cable cards in Tivo because they have a new HD DVR box themselves (and we can get it for only $12/month, of course). She told him it is simply impossible now to get all the channels (even basic cable channels) through cable cards in a Tivo. I actually have a receipt here with handwriting on it: "you can no longer receive channels through Tivo".

So I called TW tech support tonight, verified they have the correct host ID, and that's about all they will do. He claimed to send an authorization signal while we were on the phone, but nothing happened. On the pairing screen it still says "contact cable company". And on the conditional access screen it shows Val ? and no subscription info. So I have another tech coming out in 9 days now. What a pain.

Any suggestions? It seems like most people are able to fix it themselves on the phone with the cable company.

Thanks for any help.


FWIW, TW sent another tech out yesterday (Saturday), and he got it working in about 30-45 minutes. He claims the previous tech must have mixed up the host/data numbers, but he still ended up putting in a new card. And he had to ask someone on the phone to hit the card few times.

Now I am getting all the channels I'm supposed to.

It immediately started doing the choppy video thing during the football game, but a restart seems to have fixed it. I guess that is a common problem.

[jeremyeastburn]

After eight, yes, count them EIGHT visits from Time Warner Cable technicians (Charlotte NC area) I finally got my Tivo Series 3 HD up and running with dual cable cards. I got card after card from the techs and they were all defective (would jump right to the "Updating..." screen with no end in sight). We finally got it working by inserting two "M" cards (multistream) in both slots and that did the trick.

But my question is, when we put in the M-cards the diagnostic screen still says "one-way" instead of "two-way". Is there anything I have to do to get the Tivo to recognize the M-cards as two-way cable cards? Or is TWC screwing something up? Thanks for the ideas.

[derekcbart]

After eight, yes, count them EIGHT visits from Time Warner Cable technicians (Charlotte NC area) I finally got my Tivo Series 3 HD up and running with dual cable cards. I got card after card from the techs and they were all defective (would jump right to the "Updating..." screen with no end in sight). We finally got it working by inserting two "M" cards (multistream) in both slots and that did the trick.

But my question is, when we put in the M-cards the diagnostic screen still says "one-way" instead of "two-way". Is there anything I have to do to get the Tivo to recognize the M-cards as two-way cable cards? Or is TWC screwing something up? Thanks for the ideas.

The Series 3 can use m-cards, but only in one-way mode. TWC Los Angeles originally tried to use m-cards in my S3 when I moved, but they wouldn't work and I had them use s-cards instead.

[MickeS]

But my question is, when we put in the M-cards the diagnostic screen still says "one-way" instead of "two-way". Is there anything I have to do to get the Tivo to recognize the M-cards as two-way cable cards? Or is TWC screwing something up? Thanks for the ideas.
Both M and S cards are one-way cards in your TiVo. Nothing TWC is screwing up about it. :) And in the Series 3, the M cards will only work in S mode.

[Kit_C]

TWC San Diego came out this week and installed an M-card in my Tivo HD. It went much smoother than my previous Series 3 install. Total time was about 30 minutes, and no problems since. TWC San Diego charges $1.75/per card, regardless of whether it is an M-Card or S-Card, and no outlet fee, plus $40 or the install.

[SugarBowl]

Just got an HD, and don't have the cards yet. I can get the CBS affiliate (WRAL) on the expected 5-1, etc. channels (after scanning). However, I can't get it to see the other affiliate channels FOX, ABC, etc. which should be channels like 11-1 and 50-1, etc. Anyone able to get those?

I'm in holly springs, and have recently lost the QAM channels 11.x, 17.x, and 50.x.

[MKREdit]

As I wait for for my Tivo HD to arrive I notice that the pricing structure has changed on my TWCNYC bill. Basically the premium rate has increased and it includes POD (pay on demand). Since CC does not include POD capability I was wondering if anyone who has switched over to CC is being charged for POD.

[SugarBowl]

As I wait for for my Tivo HD to arrive I notice that the pricing structure has changed on my TWCNYC bill. Basically the premium rate has increased and it includes POD (pay on demand). Since CC does not include POD capability I was wondering if anyone who has switched over to CC is being charged for POD.

My total bill has gone up $6. The basic digital plan (with roadrunner) went from 104.70 to 107.95.

Cable cards went from 1.75 to 2.50 each.

And each cable card has to pay an "Add'l Digital Tier" charge that went from 1.00 to 1.43.

previous cost of tivo: $5.50
new cost: $7.86


It's interesting how every little item gets broken down to a charge, but the RoadRunner gets lumped into the cable pricing.

[MacGillicuddy]

TWC West Hollywood
Tivo HD

I had a great experience...thought I'd share.

Called TWC on a Monday to swap the converter box for a CableCard. Didn't ask about M-vs-S cards. Did request an in-house tech instead of a contractor. Got an appointment for that Friday.

Tech showed up on time. He came with a stack of M-cards. He'd installed Series 3 units before, and thought that my Tivo HD would need 2 M-cards. But when he saw the inscripton on the door of my HD, he figured it out -- correctly.

He called in the codes, refreshed the screen a few times, and boom, all my channels were there.

I was a little concerned after he left because on channels 10-80 (roughly) the wrong station was showing up on the wrong channel numbers. IE, ESPN was where Comedy Central should be, etc. The Tivo guide data was correct, and matched up with TWC's published lineup, so I repeated guided setup, and got the same thing. Then I realized that all the channels in question had (digital?) equivalents in the 100-200 channel range. So it turns out I'm not missing any channels...just need to get used to different numbers. Went into setup and told Tivo that I "don't receive" 10 through 80 so that it would ignore those.

All in all, very happy with the experience. Light years better than the old TWC DVR.

[Bizily]

After eight, yes, count them EIGHT visits from Time Warner Cable technicians (Charlotte NC area) I finally got my Tivo Series 3 HD up and running with dual cable cards.I'm on my 3rd visit from TWC Cleveland area. They said they would bring out M-cards next time. We'll see.

[aulika]

I called TWC to set up an appointment for a cable card installation, the fees quoted here are the same as I was given. They gave me a window of 1-5pm and at 4:30 the day of installation they called to tell me that they didn't have any active cable cards and would not be able to do the installation until they had active cards and they didn't know when that would be. Then shortly after 5pm he showed up with one single stream cable card and was surprised to see the installation was for a tivo, even though I told them it was for an hd tivo series 3 that needed either two single streams or one multi. so he said he would be back the next day between 8-10am. it was after 10am when he showed up with the multi-stream cable card for installation. i think he was at my house for almost 2 hours setting it up. he didn't know what he was doing, and neither did the tech support he kept calling. eventually, being guided by his supervisor he got it installed... maybe now that they have had the experience, the techs will know what they are doing


I haven't ordered a S3 yet, but I did call TW here in Raleigh, NC. They charge 1.75 per card per month, but charge 49.99 installation per card. Anyone else here live in Raleigh get the same answer?

[DrWho453]

I called TWC to set up an appointment for a cable card installation, the fees quoted here are the same as I was given. They gave me a window of 1-5pm and at 4:30 the day of installation they called to tell me that they didn't have any active cable cards and would not be able to do the installation until they had active cards and they didn't know when that would be. Then shortly after 5pm he showed up with one single stream cable card and was surprised to see the installation was for a tivo, even though I told them it was for an hd tivo series 3 that needed either two single streams or one multi. so he said he would be back the next day between 8-10am. it was after 10am when he showed up with the multi-stream cable card for installation. i think he was at my house for almost 2 hours setting it up. he didn't know what he was doing, and neither did the tech support he kept calling. eventually, being guided by his supervisor he got it installed... maybe now that they have had the experience, the techs will know what they are doing

It depends on who you get over there. I live in Raleigh as well and was lucky to get a technician to come out who knew what he was doing. Not only had he set up Tivos before but he also knew who to contact at the office to get the cards up and running. Mine went in pretty smoothly. He first connected the tivo to the outside box just to make sure we could get a signal there. (Funny thing about that is he and I were talking and got distracted and he forgot to hook the outside cable to the box :rolleyes:). Once we knew it worked at the box, we hooked up internally and it worked pretty well except had to change the splitter that I had out for a better one. He left and all was good except I had a couple of HD channels would not come up. Turned out the second card which had to get a firmware update did not get fully authorized and they had to do the pairing again. But in one day, I had the Series up and running.

[k2ue]

I had an M card installed by TW Rochester, NY in my THD about month ago, and the fellow who came was pleasant, helpful, and interested in TiVos. No problems since. I lost two SDV HD channels in the switch, and look forward to the USB SDV Adapter in the works, as all new HD here will be SDV.

But there is NOTHING like a real TiVo -- I can finally search effectively for programs of interest, and Suggestions often finds desired programs I missed. It's SO good to be home. . .

[jnc8651]

i went to the twc service center and they were completely out of cc's so i had to wait 2 days for them to get it in. once i got it i took it home and pop'ed it in and did the initial gs with my tivo (it just came in that day) and called twc and it took about 45 min to get the cc activated. they initaly screwed up and just gave me 2-78 + local hd channels, and i had to call in and they said that the cc wasnt "balanced" and after they got the problem fixed its been smooth sailing onword.... now time to add a 750 gb hdd to my tivo hd the hard way..... but other then that i have no problems with the cc and my bill went down a few dollars in the end :)

[mmcgown]

Hello jnc8651,

You say.......you went to the TWC service center and picked up cablecards?

Where do you live???

I tried to tell TWC-Austin how much money they could save by letting customers pick up cards; they weren't interested.

My installer insisted on NOT following the steps that TiVo provided, so it took most of a day......at TWC's expense.

[jonnio]

ESPN2 HD, Food TV HD, etc are now accessible via cable card. I found out only b/c we replaced by series 2 with an HD (and transferred the lifetime ;-) ) and discovered that the new channels came in. I had them re-pair the cards in my S3 and viola! ESPN2 HD!

[AlexK777]

I had a bad experience with TW Austin. The guy came out and installed two M cards and called in the numbers and stuff. He ran through a couple of test channels (sub 100) and said everything looked good. I tried some digital channels (100+) and they were ok. None of the HD channels worked, but he told me they would take some time to activate. I assumed he knew what he was talking about.

Later that day, got nothing. Pay channels (HBO etc) didn't work either. Called the next day and they told me they changed something in the configuration and it should work now. I still could not get pay channels. They said they would send out a tech (4 days later). I can't imagine how that is going to help since the cards are fine. I don't know what a tech can do, but I don't think they know how to do anything else.

Is there anything I should look for, or ask about?

[AlexK777]

I had a bad experience with TW Austin.

I have to amend this post. About 5 minutes after I posted, I got a PM from cableguy763. He said if I was still up, let him know and he would call me. I did, and he called me and did the mojo on my cable cards to get everything working again. Bear in mind this is at 12:30 on a Saturday night. :up: :up: :up:

I think this is more a testament to cableguy763 than TW Austin, but it certainly was a welcome change from typical cable service. If you are in Austin, you should definitely drop him a line before getting things set up.

[juggler314]

I'm in Manhattan and have had a Tivo3 mostly working with a single multicast card for a few months now after initially dealing with a few bouts of incompetence at TWC to get it going. I'm still not a satisfied customer. Has anyone else experienced the following?

1. Periodically the cablecard just stops being recognized with a message indicating the service is not communicating with the card. To fix it, I have to reset the Tivo3, which appears to redo all the client/server setup calls (400+ blocks of data over thirty minutes).

2. I feel I'm overpaying. TWC lists a pkg to have home cable for internet and tivo in a package called DTValue, but indicates it is only an option to those with cablebox. Users of cablecard they say must get the channels "ala cart", which in net effect means the first cablecard is ~$22, not $1.75.

3. I pay for HBO but don't see 201 through 207, e.g. HBO2 and other channels as we did before getting rid of the cablebox. We only get 780 (HD HBO). A call to support was fruitless, he said it was the card itself -- wrong answer since 2 independent cards had the same problem (I have a 2nd cablecard on the TV). Completely clueless support, he basically pointed me to the aforementioned DTValue package and remedied with 1 free month of Cinemax, which then became a charge on my next bill. Gee, thanks, TWC!

4. slightly off topic for Tivo, but it seems some knowledgable folks are on this forum. The 2nd cablecard in the TV periodicaly throws error 161-10 onscreen a few times a week. Turning off/on the TV makes it go away.

I've written a long letter off to a "research dept." in Flushing NY, but remain skeptical these clowns have a clue, or more to the point, *care* to have a clue on how to support cablecard, and they don't mind that by their pricing and incompetence they are probably in violation of the 1996 law.

I've never been a big fan of class action suits since going to a competitor is the best method for consumers to show displeasure, but TWC is clearly deserving of one.
These guys need firm message, and for apt. dwellers, satellite is not a realistic competitive alternative, which makes TWC a true monopoly, and one that has run amuck and is not accountable.

Any thoughts are welcome as would word from other NYC residents trying to use cablecards and interested in pursuing legal options.

I'm totally with you, a page or two ago in this forum I mentioned that my bill went from 61.50 (DTValue package) to 66.85 with CC because TWCNYC only does "a la carte" pricing with CC's. To me this breaks FCC rules, you can't be told that you have to provide a service than price it significantly higher than using the box. And I have to point out that the DTValue package that "includes a cable box" also includes a CC by default since TWC is required to use CC's in it's own boxes as well. So now I'm being charged more and getting less.

I tried to find the right complaint form for the FCC, but the one I found linked in here somewhere pointed to a form that had lots of questions about telephone lines...not sure it's correct. If anyone can tell me the link to the correct form to file a complaint with the FCC over services relating to Cable please let me know!

[m_jonis]

Well you could be in Albany, NY where about 18 of the new HD channels are SDV and they're switching a bunch of digital channels over to SDV now as well.

Essentially forcing you to pay another $8.95/month for a STB (and also no TivoHD) just to get the channels.

[socrplyr]

I just got a cable card put in my Tivo HD in Ithaca, NY. Everything went smoothly and it was a good experience. For the most part it seems like I get everything but a couple of HD channels. (I don't have an HDTV right now.) I have never had this many channels before so I doubt I will miss them especially since I don't have much time to watch tv anyways. The only odd thing was that after putting in the cable card, it did a firmware update. That took a while and it killed my wireless connection. I switched to a wired one and then ran the setup again. After that I plugged in my wireless and it worked flawlessly again. I don't know what caused it but it works find now.
Josh

[RickBarrett]

Just had two TW Cable Cards installed in an HD in Dallas Texas. Everything seems to be working and the bill is $17 for the service call and $2.95/mo per cable card. Haven't seen the new bill yet...we'll see.

[bananaman]

I'm in Manhattan too, but maybe I lead a charmed life! I have a Series 3 with two Scientific Atlanta M-Cards. They were installed in a single two hour visit from a TWC tech, along with the RoadRunner Standard cable internet modem. I'm not seeing any communication problems or other errors.

I'm paying as per the TWC web site, which is what I expected. I agree that it would be nice for CableCard subscribers to get access to the "Triple Play" and "Double Play" packages. It seems bizarre that they are not offered to CableCard users. I use Vonage for VOIP phone, totally happy, and TWC have no interesting phone offer to make me switch! Not only does TWC have a a vastly inferior VOIP phone feature set to Vonage, but also they want way more money for it.
I'm in Manhattan and have had a Tivo3 mostly working with a single multicast card for a few months now after initially dealing with a few bouts of incompetence at TWC to get it going. I'm still not a satisfied customer. Has anyone else experienced the following?

1. Periodically the cablecard just stops being recognized with a message indicating the service is not communicating with the card. To fix it, I have to reset the Tivo3, which appears to redo all the client/server setup calls (400+ blocks of data over thirty minutes).

2. I feel I'm overpaying. TWC lists a pkg to have home cable for internet and tivo in a package called DTValue, but indicates it is only an option to those with cablebox. Users of cablecard they say must get the channels "ala cart", which in net effect means the first cablecard is ~$22, not $1.75.

3. I pay for HBO but don't see 201 through 207, e.g. HBO2 and other channels as we did before getting rid of the cablebox. We only get 780 (HD HBO). A call to support was fruitless, he said it was the card itself -- wrong answer since 2 independent cards had the same problem (I have a 2nd cablecard on the TV). Completely clueless support, he basically pointed me to the aforementioned DTValue package and remedied with 1 free month of Cinemax, which then became a charge on my next bill. Gee, thanks, TWC!

4. slightly off topic for Tivo, but it seems some knowledgable folks are on this forum. The 2nd cablecard in the TV periodicaly throws error 161-10 onscreen a few times a week. Turning off/on the TV makes it go away.

I've written a long letter off to a "research dept." in Flushing NY, but remain skeptical these clowns have a clue, or more to the point, *care* to have a clue on how to support cablecard, and they don't mind that by their pricing and incompetence they are probably in violation of the 1996 law.

I've never been a big fan of class action suits since going to a competitor is the best method for consumers to show displeasure, but TWC is clearly deserving of one.
These guys need firm message, and for apt. dwellers, satellite is not a realistic competitive alternative, which makes TWC a true monopoly, and one that has run amuck and is not accountable.

Any thoughts are welcome as would word from other NYC residents trying to use cablecards and interested in pursuing legal options.

[mercurial]

Had the TWC in yesterday trying to install an M-card in our new THD. Since we already had S3s I knew it would likely be a pain. Got there at 10:30 and finally gave up and left at 2:00. They're supposed to be back at 5pm tonight.

Basically they disconnected everything but the feed to this TiVo to give it the best signal first but claim the issue is with the TWC head-end and they they were "backed up sending hits". Never heard that one before but hey, if they show up tonight and get it working, they'll have got it going in 50% fewwer visits than the first time... :D

[SugarBowl]

Had the TWC in yesterday trying to install an M-card in our new THD. Since we already had S3s I knew it would likely be a pain. Got there at 10:30 and finally gave up and left at 2:00. They're supposed to be back at 5pm tonight.

Basically they disconnected everything but the feed to this TiVo to give it the best signal first but claim the issue is with the TWC head-end and they they were "backed up sending hits". Never heard that one before but hey, if they show up tonight and get it working, they'll have got it going in 50% fewwer visits than the first time... :D

The first guy they sent to my house in Holly Springs did the same "disconnect everything" routine. And it still didn't work. After he left, someone called me and said he just found 2 cards that he knows works, and they will bring them out the next day. They showed up the next day, put the cards in, called in the numbers, and everything worked. No disconnecting necessary.

[Plymouth Duster]

I purchased an HDTV at Christmas, along with an HDTivo. The Audio/Video company I purchased the HDTV from is a contractor for Time Warner (Beaumont, TX) and they installed two S-Cards in the HDTivo. Problems abounded. After two service calls, Time Warner took my HDTivo to the shop for installation. (The service tech was a very nice guy, but admitted that he had just started working with cablecards that week.) The HDTivo was returned with one S-Card around January 3, 2008, with a promise that I would receive an M-Card as soon as they arrived in approximately two to three weeks. The tech explained that they could not get the HDTivo to work in our service area with two S-Cards, but it would work fine when one M-Card is installed.

I'm not sure I believe anything they have told me about S-Cards vs. M-Cards working with Time Warner in my area (Beaumont, TX). Has anyone had any similar experience with Time Warner and CableCards?

[MickeS]

I purchased an HDTV at Christmas, along with an HDTivo. The Audio/Video company I purchased the HDTV from is a contractor for Time Warner (Beaumont, TX) and they installed two S-Cards in the HDTivo. Problems abounded. After two service calls, Time Warner took my HDTivo to the shop for installation. (The service tech was a very nice guy, but admitted that he had just started working with cablecards that week.) The HDTivo was returned with one S-Card around January 3, 2008, with a promise that I would receive an M-Card as soon as they arrived in approximately two to three weeks. The tech explained that they could not get the HDTivo to work in our service area with two S-Cards, but it would work fine when one M-Card is installed.

I'm not sure I believe anything they have told me about S-Cards vs. M-Cards working with Time Warner in my area (Beaumont, TX). Has anyone had any similar experience with Time Warner and CableCards?

They're giving you a bunch of BS. It will work fine with two S-Cards, unless 1) there's something wrong with your particular TiVo or 2) there was something wrong with that particular S-card.

Call for a service appointment and don't let them off the hook until they have it working, or contact your dealer and see if they can replace your TiVo and try the cards in another one.

[brown_squirrel]

Hi. First Post.

I have a single M card from Time Warner. I read in another post that signal strength (messages/settings, account/system info, diagnostics) should be over 60. My signal strength=44.

Signal strength is just how strong the transmission from TWC is, right? How can I improve this? Can I try better cables or anything?

Thanks!

[m_jonis]

Well, in Albany, NY we're at 97 SDV channels and climbing. At this rate, I'm gonna have to dump my TivoHD and pay the extra $15/month for TW STB DVR.

I highly doubt the elusive tuning resolver will even be available by July 1, 2008 (and from what I can tell, because TW using SA equipment here, it'll be even longer).

[MickeS]

Hi. First Post.

I have a single M card from Time Warner. I read in another post that signal strength (messages/settings, account/system info, diagnostics) should be over 60. My signal strength=44.

Signal strength is just how strong the transmission from TWC is, right? How can I improve this? Can I try better cables or anything?

Thanks!

Call the cable company and have them come out and check signal strength. They will fix it if needed (in my experience).

[SugarBowl]

Hi. First Post.

I have a single M card from Time Warner. I read in another post that signal strength (messages/settings, account/system info, diagnostics) should be over 60. My signal strength=44.

Signal strength is just how strong the transmission from TWC is, right? How can I improve this? Can I try better cables or anything?

Thanks!

It usually involves removing or replacing splitters.

[jmbissell]

Yeah I was speaking more about the non-OTA stuff. I'm probably overly critical.

BTW Cable guy I've been meaning to ask you, my QAM channels seem to be not there lately. Right now all I get is CBS KEYE and the Tivo thinks it is KLRU! The Tivo info is there when I tune the channel but no image appears except for the above mentioned CBS on the wrong channel number. I'm seeing this on both the TVHD and the S3. I'm on TWC analog in Oak Hill.

Any thoughts?
I've had the same problem for weeks. Watched football on 1531 on a Sunday and then by Monday all the 1500 channels were gone (CBS was KLRU for a day or so). TW sent a tech out and he claimed it must be a signal strength problem. Changed out connectors and splitter to no avail. Left after spending a couple hours and still no 1500 channels. TW tech support stopped responding to my queries on this - I need to try them again. I am able to get the local HD stations on 82.x to 84.x (I'd have to look for the exact numbers) but, of course, the TiVo program guide lists the 1500 channels for local HD. I'm in S. Austin (Lamar/Oltorf) so maybe it's just a problem at our end of town.

[jmbissell]

FWIW, I just checked TW-Austin's latest channel guide (http://www.timewarnercentral.com/austin.pdf) and it now shows all the HD channels (including the local stations) grouped on the High Def tier with a note that says, "HD Converter & HDTV required to receive HD programming." I thought they had an obligation to carry the local HD channels on clear QAM.

[cableguy763]

FWIW, I just checked TW-Austin's latest channel guide (http://www.timewarnercentral.com/austin.pdf) and it now shows all the HD channels (including the local stations) grouped on the High Def tier with a note that says, "HD Converter & HDTV required to receive HD programming." I thought they had an obligation to carry the local HD channels on clear QAM.

They do carry the HD locals in clear qam. Do a channel scan.

[jmbissell]

Yes, I can get them in the 82.x-84.x range. But those channels aren't in the TiVo Guide so I can't program them by program name but rather would have to program a specific channel/time which sort of defeats the purpose of having TiVo. I have been using an antenna w/TiVo to get the local HD channels and watching the 8x.x cable versions on my TV.

[cableguy763]

Yes, I can get them in the 82.x-84.x range. But those channels aren't in the TiVo Guide so I can't program them by program name but rather would have to program a specific channel/time which sort of defeats the purpose of having TiVo. I have been using an antenna w/TiVo to get the local HD channels and watching the 8x.x cable versions on my TV.

I think I heard that TW might have done some maintenance last night that could have changed that. Please do a rescan.

If they aren't fixed, then you are in the same boat as just about every other non cablecard user. There are extensive threads in this forum begging for clear qam mapping ability from tivo.

[jmbissell]

Nothing seems to have changed here. I don't need TiVo to change anything (although programming your own channels might be a good addition). I just need TW to put the local HD programs where their guide says they should be.

[cableguy763]

Nothing seems to have changed here. I don't need TiVo to change anything (although programming your own channels might be a good addition). I just need TW to put the local HD programs where their guide says they should be.

If you have a cable box, the channels are where the guide says. Thus the asterisk. Not trying to go in circles with you at all. :) You are feeling the pain of many clear qam only users.:o

[jmbissell]

I understand that you're not trying to give me the run-around. Seems like the TW office thinks there is a problem or else they just roll a truck for every issue even though I tell them that others are having the same problem. No wonder my rates keep going up.

I don't want a cable box and can keep getting the local stations w/antenna. My TV only has one coax input so I'll just use the 82.x-84.x mappings on TW for the local channels. The previous TW channel guide did not specify that you needed a box to get the 15xx channels. IMHO, it's hardly "clear QAM" if I have to get a box. And the channels are hardly free if I have to pay for a box every month. TW may be within the letter of the law but certainly not the spirit.

[jhaggs]

I just had an M card installed in the Tivo HD box in the North Dallas area. I am getting all channels up to around 100 and then I lose many channels just over 100 and the HD tier. I get the local HD's however. I have called tech support numerous times and they try to hit the cards but no change just a gray screen. A tech was to come out last night but never showed so I am supposed to get a call back today but so far nothing there. I notice on the gray channels I am supposed to get when I go into conditioanal access the Auth is coming up Auth:MP instead of Auth:S or Succeed. Anyone else seen this and any suggestions on what might be happening and where to start on this?

[Myphsto]

Yes I am getting ESPH HD just not ESPH 2 HD. I was not getting it right away though so what I did was call the number that is listed in the TIVO guide menu (time warner number) and had them Re-authorize my (4) cable cards with the channel lineup that I subscribe to. I had them do that (2) times in total after the technician had left.

The only HD channels I lost due to the SDV were: ESPN2 HD,TBSHD, A&EHD, & HGTVHD


I have it on good authority that Time Warner is not currently doing SDV for several channels that do not display on cable card devices-- yet we do not get them. The reason is if they offer these channels to cable cards per the FCC regs they have to ALWAYS offer them to cable card users. Many of the new HD channels are being left off the cable card programming that are not SDV because of this. Time Warner wants to leave the door open for doing SDV on any channel it's not currently providing to cable cards because right now cable cards can't do SDV.

Here is how to detect if a non SDV channel is being left off of your lineup on purpose for these reasons.

Tune to the channel number. If you get a GREY screen it is a channel that is SDV or you do not subscribe to. If instead you see the default Time Warner channel (scrolls PPV movie ads etc over and over) it is a non-SDV channel which 'could' be allowed to be seen on your cable card but is not.

I currently should be able to get these channels that are non-SDV AND are part of my package but I cannot because they have been left off the programming for cable cards.

117 ESPNU
157 NIKTON
164 FPN
172 LOGO
188 MPLEX
528 ESPN2HD (mentioned here several times)
*Just added and of course they left off*
534 TBSHD
537 HGTVHD
542 AETVHD
545 MOJOHD

If you live in the Milwaukee/Waukesha WI TW area and have cable cards please check these channels. If you see the TW trailer, you're paying for content you could technically be watching but TW didn't program to send to cable cards.

Call and complain. I know they don't listen, but even without SDV we should be getting what we pay for. They really should be using SDV for channels that do not have a huge market, and leaving the normal channels non-SDV. They can do this, we need to make sure they hear us.

[stevec5375]

I just received an email today from Time Warner Cable in Central Texas informing me of great new programming:

1620 - National Geographic HD
1658 - Lifetime Movie
1633 - Weather Channel HD
1680 - Movie Channel HD
and more...

Guess what? I can't see any of them. This leads me to believe they are using Switched Digital Video for them. How long must we suffer with the inability to view SDV channels on the Tivo? If I'd known this before I bought it, I would never have made the purchase. What a rip off and a pain.

[nikki01]

Hey everyone,

Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences with TWC. Had a question, and would appreciate any help anyone could give me. I just bought a Tivo HD. I called TWC twice in the past 3 days for info and cablecards. This is what I was told:

--They do NOT have M-cards. They will have to install 2 cards.
-30.30 truck roll, 19.99 to install extra card, about 3.50 a month total for both cards together
-I will get ALL the channels I currently get with my premium digital cable option
-my triple play package will not be affected

This seems contradictory to some other posts I have seen here. Is this information correct? My main questions are: 1) Can I get a single M-card here in TWC Manhattan, 2) Will I get ALL my channels? Are there any SDV channels? 3)Does the cost sound right? Will triple play get affected if I turn in my box? The guy is coming out in about 4 days.
Thnx for any help!

[ruhmann]

Why the heck do they send contractors to install these cable cards?!? The guy was really nice and admitted that he's never installed these new multi-stream cards before. Everything seemed to go smoothly. I couldn't get digital channels but the guy said that they'd work in two hours. It's been eight hours and digital channels still don't work. I'll have to call them tomorrow and I'm sure they'll get it straightened out. This is more a note to everyone else: Don't let the tech leave until it all works. Don't let him/her tell you that it'll work in a few hours. Make him call the central office again. I was an idiot and believed him when he said it would work in a few hours.

Also, the tech was not at all needed. I could have stuck the card in and called 485-5555 as well. But, I had to pay $35 so some contractor to do it.

[cableguy763]

Why the heck do they send contractors to install these cable cards?!? The guy was really nice and admitted that he's never installed these new multi-stream cards before. Everything seemed to go smoothly. I couldn't get digital channels but the guy said that they'd work in two hours. It's been eight hours and digital channels still don't work. I'll have to call them tomorrow and I'm sure they'll get it straightened out. This is more a note to everyone else: Don't let the tech leave until it all works. Don't let him/her tell you that it'll work in a few hours. Make him call the central office again. I was an idiot and believed him when he said it would work in a few hours.

Also, the tech was not at all needed. I could have stuck the card in and called 485-5555 as well. But, I had to pay $35 so some contractor to do it.
Send me a PM with a contact number and I can help get you fixed up. Hopefully all over the phone.

[spaced]

Just wanted to share my positive Series 3 install story:

I just closed on a new construction house. Had TWC install (RoadRunner and digital cable) scheduled the next day with an 8 AM to 12 PM window. Installer called about 9:45 asking to clarify directions and showed up at 10. He was quite pleasant, seemed knowledgeable and worked fast. He had to run a new line from the junction box to the house, install a new box on the side of my house, and make all the necessary connections. He then installed and verified my cable modem. Then on to the TiVo.

I handed him the "give this to the cable installer" sheet which he read thoroughly and followed exactly. He brought three S-cards with him, took the first, wrote down the serial number and inserted it. He said "They usually send me out on cablecard orders, I've done a few of these before. The big question is who I talk to when I call in." A little anxiety here on my part, but he seemed confident.

At this point I had to tend to the other installers (security, blinds, etc) that were in my house at the time so I let him do his thing. When he was done, I had a fully working TiVo, digital and HD channels coming in crystal clear. He explained to me he knew it was working because he could see EMMs coming in, showed me the config screen, etc. He thanked me for having updated the software and doing guided setup in advance.

Total time was 1 hour, 15 minutes. I was nervous about the whole thing from the get-go but everything turned out perfectly and it has worked like a champ since then.

[gamo62]

I have TWC here in Cincinnati. Anyone here know a workaround that allows me not to have to use my cable cards and still get guide data from the digital channels that are passed thru? Such as 12-1, 19-1. All I have is Lifeline. I'm paying $6.95 for the local HD channels that I get as a pass thru. They do show up in the guide, but there are no descriptions. Thanks.
If I use the antenna to get the channels, the information does show up.

[zingboy]

Just has a Lower Manhattan TWC tech come out to install two cable cards on my Tivo HD. It went incredibly smoothly. He brought two multi-stream(Mcard) cards because of some really complicated S3 install he did yesterday. Only needed one, which saved me money. They had told me they didn't have Mcards on the phone initially. Never listen to the phone reps. Ever.

The whole install took 35 minutes, which included a firmware upgrade on the cablecard. Totally pleased. Bless Tivo for the "Hand this to your cable card installer" guide.

And I got rid of 4 cables from the back of my tv – the cable box power cord, the two RF cables and the RCA into the Tivo. Nice and clean.

[goodbar]

I upgraded my Time Warner service in Plano recently. The process started last Thursday Jan 31 and completed today Feb 5. I have a TivoHD and I upgraded to the Digital Tier with HD package.

I can definitely understand the confusion about Single versus Multi cards. The person who took my order said there were no Multicards. However, the install techs are given Multicards to install.

After installing cable modem and phone, the first installer installed the Multicard he was given and called in the numbers. Tivo could not tune the HD tier, and he did not have any more cards (~ 1 hour on cablecards). I called Time Warner to complain (~ 1 hour). They sent out another installer on Friday Feb 1. He put in another card and called in the numbers (~30 mins). Now - no Digital or HD. I called and spent more time on line with Time Warner. This time the level one followed his script and had me unplug the TV (yes - idiots) then re-setup the Tivo. Of couse, this did not work (2 hours). Saturday Feb 2, another installer installed another card and called it in. It did not work - no Digital or HD (1 hour). Another call to Time Warner and they finally agreed to send out a Time Warner tech (1 hour).

Everyone up until this point was a 3rd party contractor to Time Warner. All of them were nice and competent, but were shut out from the internal Time Warner systems. Today, Tues Feb 5, the Time Warner tech showed up. He mentioned that the Data ID on the Cable screen may change from the first number. He checked and called in the "new" data number. Within 2 minutes - it started working. On the Channel Scan screen, the channels started showing up. Digital and HD channels could be tuned. Wow. I am guessing all the other cards may have been fine - but suffering from wrong data at Time Warner.

After installing a cable booster to deal with some pixelation issues, everything is great with the cable - all the digital and HD channels are coming in well. The tech knew what he was doing.

I cannot comprehend why Time Warner does not tell the Level One Support people to check ALL the configuration numbers. This would solve a lot of customer frustrations and it would also save many, many cablecard installation trips. I have read several people switching to DirectTV because of these cablecard problems.

Anyway, all is well now - after 6 frustrating days, 4 truck rolls with 3 different cablecards taking 3.5 hours and 3 calls with support taking another 4 hours. This does not include time waiting. This does not include having to record the Super Bowl in SD because of the signal issues.

For anyone planning this effort, definitely read the Tivo guides for cablecard installation and be familiar with the screens. Try to get Level 1 support to verify all the numbers from the setup, and you may want to verify whether the Data ID or other numbers change over time to see if that is causing future programming losses.

Hope this helps someone out there. Good luck.

[lejm]

Hello, I am on TWCNYC and am confused about their service and which Tivo box I'll need. I'm on the basic starter package plan (Digital Starter Pak), which the rep I spoke to yesterday said was *not* digital, it was regular cable. Okay, so in that case Series2 would work. But then the rep I spoke to today said it was all on a digital feed, which means I need the CableCards and a Tivo HD box. I'm sure there are other TWCNYC folks on here - can someone give me the straight answer?

I think there was a semantics issue with TWCNYC calling the lower channels "basic and standard" and channels above 75 "digital" even though it's all coming into my house digitally. Can anyone confirm that this is the case?

Hey everyone,

Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences with TWC. Had a question, and would appreciate any help anyone could give me. I just bought a Tivo HD. I called TWC twice in the past 3 days for info and cablecards. This is what I was told:

--They do NOT have M-cards. They will have to install 2 cards.
-30.30 truck roll, 19.99 to install extra card, about 3.50 a month total for both cards together
-I will get ALL the channels I currently get with my premium digital cable option
-my triple play package will not be affected

This seems contradictory to some other posts I have seen here. Is this information correct? My main questions are: 1) Can I get a single M-card here in TWC Manhattan, 2) Will I get ALL my channels? Are there any SDV channels? 3)Does the cost sound right? Will triple play get affected if I turn in my box? The guy is coming out in about 4 days.
Thnx for any help!

This is what I heard as well, though the first S-card is 1.75 and each additional is $4.55/mo. I'd double-check on your triple play package, as every rep tells me once I get rid of the box and have the cards, my cable service becomes a la carte, and the cost is a few dollars more than the package deal.

[jhaggs]

I have finally got all my HD channels and the other missing SD channels on TW in Plano Texas. I have been at it for almost 2 weeks and the issue turned out to be for some reason they had an HD DVR and a second M card added to my account that I have never had!! They finally sent out an actual Time Warner employee to look at this and found out the additional items on my account. I had even got one of the CSR's to verify the numbers on my M Card and send the hit to it but they found out through dispatch that most likely they were hitting the HD DVR that was never on my account. Strangely enough I asked the question to the CSR to show what devices were listed and in what order and the twice I was told a cable card and a standard set top box which would have been the correct answer. However that was not all that was on my account. It sad that it took 2 weeks and having to get the issue escalated to be able to get this resolution which took the tech 30 seconds to figure out with his dispatch. Anyways I am excited that all is working fine now. I hope this can help some people out and be sure that you find out what they have on your account as magical items like to randomly appear....that they seem to not be able to see.

[harrd]

There are a number of new HD channels offered by Time Warner in my area, Burlington, NC. Unfortunately I can't get any of these new channels until Time Warner has something called a "2 way cable card".

What is a "2 way cable card"? :confused:

[ruhmann]

I can't get HDNet or HDNet Movies on my TiVo. I actually get the cable card diagnostic screen when I go to those channels. Does anyone know why? Are those channels switched digital in Austin?

Side question, does anyone know when those dongles are comping out that let us use the SDV channels on our TiVo?

[cableguy763]

I can't get HDNet or HDNet Movies on my TiVo. I actually get the cable card diagnostic screen when I go to those channels. Does anyone know why? Are those channels switched digital in Austin?

Side question, does anyone know when those dongles are comping out that let us use the SDV channels on our TiVo?

Those are not sdv channels in Austin. They are in the "Extended HD" tier that you have to pay for.

[DrWho453]

There are a number of new HD channels offered by Time Warner in my area, Burlington, NC. Unfortunately I can't get any of these new channels until Time Warner has something called a "2 way cable card".

What is a "2 way cable card"? :confused:

As far as I know there is no such thing as a 2 way cable card. Cable cards can work in devices that support one way or two way communications. If a cable card was installed in a device with two way communications then you could order VOD or PPV through the communication device. Tivo is a one way device and does not have the capability to do two way communications which is why VOD and PPV will not work on Tivo.

Now the cable company may be talking about Switched digital video (SDV) which there is a usb tuner resolver in the works to allow the tivo to access those channels. You may find more information on SDV here:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=357703&highlight=sdv

Edit: TWC Raleigh/Durham tried SDV here with some of the new channels such tbsHD, A&EHD, and some others and when they first came on, we could not get them on the Tivo. About a month or so ago we started getting them so I think they canceled the SDV temporarily.

[kentyman]

I had a Time Warner Cable guy come install a CableCARD in my TiVo HD today in Austin.

Digital channels work, but for some reason al HD channels in the 1600s do not. Specifically Discovery HD (1617) and ESPN HD (1635) are the ones I have tried. None of the music channels in the 800s work either. The guy stayed around for a couple hours trying to get it to work, but eventually said that the guy on the phone told him it should work in 4-6 hours. It has been much longer than that and still no change.

I just called in and had Time Warner Cable technical support reset the CableCARD to see if that would help. He said to wait 30 minutes and it should work. It's been 30 minutes and still no change.

Can anyone help?

[TxPres]

I had a Time Warner Cable guy come install a CableCARD in my TiVo HD today in Austin.

Digital channels work, but for some reason al HD channels in the 1600s do not. Specifically Discovery HD (1617) and ESPN HD (1635) are the ones I have tried. None of the music channels in the 800s work either. The guy stayed around for a couple hours trying to get it to work, but eventually said that the guy on the phone told him it should work in 4-6 hours. It has been much longer than that and still no change.

I just called in and had Time Warner Cable technical support reset the CableCARD to see if that would help. He said to wait 30 minutes and it should work. It's been 30 minutes and still no change.

Can anyone help?

That was the same thing that happened to me. On the second truck roll, the tech checked everything out. He wanted to check/replace all splitters. Said it was probably a signal strength issue. I told him to run a temp line from the curb directly to Tivo rather than crawl around in my attic. He did and there was no change. After that, it was pretty obvious that the problem was either a CC isssue or a problem with the "office".

After a couple of hours with the tech talking to the "office", they finally sent down 39 EMM's (?) and that fixed things. For whatever reason, the "office" is very reluctant to send down the multiple EMM's. However, after they did send them, my CC's are working fine and I am getting all the channels I am supposed to get (of course, not the SDV channels).

Now I am waiting for the SDV dongle if it ever shows up.

[jdh2005]

I purchased an HDTV at Christmas, along with an HDTivo. The Audio/Video company I purchased the HDTV from is a contractor for Time Warner (Beaumont, TX) and they installed two S-Cards in the HDTivo. Problems abounded. After two service calls, Time Warner took my HDTivo to the shop for installation. (The service tech was a very nice guy, but admitted that he had just started working with cablecards that week.) The HDTivo was returned with one S-Card around January 3, 2008, with a promise that I would receive an M-Card as soon as they arrived in approximately two to three weeks. The tech explained that they could not get the HDTivo to work in our service area with two S-Cards, but it would work fine when one M-Card is installed.

I'm not sure I believe anything they have told me about S-Cards vs. M-Cards working with Time Warner in my area (Beaumont, TX). Has anyone had any similar experience with Time Warner and CableCards?

Don't believe them... I've had a tivo s3 in the Beaumont, TX area since September of 06 and have 2 S cards but they've never done things correctly. Card 1 works but is not authorized so doesn't get any digital or encrypted channels... Card 2 works properly on all (shows a subscribed on the auth where #1 doesn't even show the auth line).

They've given me the runaround since then - from we don't carry cablecards to we don't support tivo to there's a new type of card out and only that one will work (obviously not true since my 2nd card works) to let us take your tivo and get it working - but wouldn't guarantee to fix it if they broke it.

I've been working on getting them to fix it lately (I bought my Dad a Tivo HD and he's having similar problems so I figured it was time to start complaining again) and have had 2 truck rolls - but both techs take one look and say we can't get those to work (the first giving me the story about a new cable card). I handed the 2nd guy printout from this forum (thanks guys!) explained to him the difference between S and M cards and he was impressed - not enough to actually do anything but he took them with him.

The local manager called me last week and promised to send out a tech who knew how to deal with cablecards today - but guess what no tech and no return call. A call to him today went directly to voice mail.

I've tried to get them to just let me do the cablecard part but no luck. Looks like it's time to call the corporate office (hmmm now where is that number??) and then a complaint to the FCC.

[nhw3w]

I live in NYC (Northern Manhattan) and I've just purchased 2 Tivo HD boxes. The TWC guy is coming on Friday to install M-series cablecards and I want to be ready. Here's what I have done:

1. Activated both boxes
2. Downloaded the latest software for each
3. Hooked up both audio and video to the home theater in each room (bedroom, livingroom)
4. Tried to set up each box to work with my analog cable boxes for the week just so I can play around with Tivo (I did a channel scan and it seemed to add the right channels but the reception seems screwed up (analog cable box issue?) so I'm not going to bother with it further.

Here's my question...

To facilitate the cablecard installation do I need to reset the Tivo to factory defaults or do anything special?



I tried

[dtivouser]

I just spun up my new THD on Time Warner with two cable cards. Most of the channels in the 100-150 range are not working, they are blank screens. Other channels, including HD content in the 400 range, are working fine. Spent an hour on the phone with TW support who couldn't figure it out. Technician is coming out next week. Ugh.

Any ideas what's going on here?
Why does one of my cablecards say "SingleStream" and the other doesn't? Is that something relevant to this problem?

[Bizily]

After eight, yes, count them EIGHT visits from Time Warner Cable technicians (Charlotte NC area) I finally got my Tivo Series 3 HD up and running with dual cable cards.

I'm on my 3rd visit from TWC Cleveland area. They said they would bring out M-cards next time. We'll see.

It took seven visits from TWC Northeast Ohio, but they finally got it working this weekend. They experimented with multiple cable cards, both SA and Motorola, with problems ranging from getting stuck in upgrading firmware mode to not pulling in all of the digital stations. It took awhile, but at least they remained persistent.

I've been comparing my S3 with my HR10 while I still have Directv service. I have to say that the HD picture quality is slightly sharper on the HR10. But I really like the networking features on the S3. Also, with all the other annoyances with D*, it will be nice to finally tell them to get lost.

[cab2]

Also, with all the other annoyances with D*, it will be nice to finally tell them to get lost.

Grin! just wait. TWC is certainly not a jewel.:)

I've actually thought of going to DTV but would have to give up my tivo s3, so no go for me. Other than the tivo, I'd ditch TW in a heartbeat.

[jdh2005]

The local manager called me last week and promised to send out a tech who knew how to deal with cablecards today - but guess what no tech and no return call. A call to him today went directly to voice mail.

Update - a tech who knows what he's doing and the local manager came out this afternoon and got both cards working :)

So anyone in the Beaumont, TX area having problems should be able to get them fixed. Tech's name is Fred and he did a good job - hardest part was him getting someone on the other end to do what he wanted - I'll never understand why they don't give them a laptop so they can connect and do it themselves if they insist on sending out a tech for a cablecard.

[Bizily]

Grin! just wait. TWC is certainly not a jewel.:)

I've had D* service along with TW basic cable and high-speed internet for several years now. I understand that no provider is perfect. I've been annoyed with how D* has been treating its MPEG2 equipment owners like myself, not to mention the interruption in service when the weather is bad. I'm not an NFL Ticket subscriber, so there is really no advantage with D*'s lineup. Plus, I save a little on my monthly bill with TWC.

[jdh2005]

I just spun up my new THD on Time Warner with two cable cards. Most of the channels in the 100-150 range are not working, they are blank screens. Other channels, including HD content in the 400 range, are working fine. Spent an hour on the phone with TW support who couldn't figure it out. Technician is coming out next week. Ugh.

Any ideas what's going on here?
Why does one of my cablecards say "SingleStream" and the other doesn't? Is that something relevant to this problem?

Probably your card is not paired properly or not validated - check out the "conditional access" screen and see what it says then compare to the info in the cablecard thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=363797

Does the other card say "Multistream"? There are 2 types according to the thread - single stream and multi stream. Difference is multi stream can handle 2 tuners in a tivohd so you only need one. S3's still require 2 cards even if they are multi stream (a limitation of the tivo apparently and not the cablecard).

[Lorcane]

I've been reading the forum and it seems I'm not alone with problems with 2 cable cards on my TiVo HD. The 2nd card paired up and got authenticated fine; however, the 1st card won't authenticate. I called up tech support and found out that I could have gotten an M-Card after all. Got another appointment scheduled for this Wednesday to install the M-Card. At least with only one card the tech will have to follow the TiVo installation guide and only do one card at a time. Time Warner also promised that this tech would be a Time Warner employee not an outside contracter. Also something else I noticed is TWC is not consistent on their pricing. I had to pay $116 to get the 2 cards installed last week on 2/6/2008. They charged me $59.99 for the first card and $39.99 for the 2nd card. I'm hoping to get a refund since I will only be using one card.

[TxPres]

You are right that TWC is not consistent in their pricing.
They still have not billed me for the truck roll on my install :D, only the $2.65 monthly charge for the CC.
Crossing my fingers and hoping they never will. :)

[bobrt6676]

I've been reading the forum and it seems I'm not alone with problems with 2 cable cards on my TiVo HD. The 2nd card paired up and got authenticated fine; however, the 1st card won't authenticate. I called up tech support and found out that I could have gotten an M-Card after all. Got another appointment scheduled for this Wednesday to install the M-Card. At least with only one card the tech will have to follow the TiVo installation guide and only do one card at a time. Time Warner also promised that this tech would be a Time Warner employee not an outside contracter. Also something else I noticed is TWC is not consistent on their pricing. I had to pay $116 to get the 2 cards installed last week on 2/6/2008. They charged me $59.99 for the first card and $39.99 for the 2nd card. I'm hoping to get a refund since I will only be using one card.

That's insane!!:eek: TWC Dayton, Ohio charges $20.00 to install and 2.95/mo. (I thought that was outragious) And they got it right the first time!

[Bizily]

What's this I'm reading that people are paying for cable card installations? I have TWC in northeast Ohio. They made seven separate visits to get two cable cards working in my S3. They didn't charge me a cent for it. Is it because I upgraded to digital service?

[Lovetroll]

That was the same thing that happened to me. On the second truck roll, the tech checked everything out. He wanted to check/replace all splitters. Said it was probably a signal strength issue. I told him to run a temp line from the curb directly to Tivo rather than crawl around in my attic. He did and there was no change. After that, it was pretty obvious that the problem was either a CC isssue or a problem with the "office".

After a couple of hours with the tech talking to the "office", they finally sent down 39 EMM's (?) and that fixed things. For whatever reason, the "office" is very reluctant to send down the multiple EMM's. However, after they did send them, my CC's are working fine and I am getting all the channels I am supposed to get (of course, not the SDV channels).

Now I am waiting for the SDV dongle if it ever shows up.

I had TWC here in Austin come by today and install an M-card into my TiVo HD and I've got the exact same issue, no channels in the 1600s at all. They want to schedule sending another truck (sometime next week) to try and fix it. After dropping my Series 2 box when I got my new 52" plasma the day before the Super Bowl only to have the TWC box break the Super Bowl into 26 segments and then deauthorize in the middle of the 4th quarter, I'm not brimming with confidence.

They told me to reboot my TiVo (again) and then check it in 30 minutes. It's still not working. I'll ask them about the EMMs... maybe I'll get lucky.

[cableguy763]

I had TWC here in Austin come by today and install an M-card into my TiVo HD and I've got the exact same issue, no channels in the 1600s at all. They want to schedule sending another truck (sometime next week) to try and fix it. After dropping my Series 2 box when I got my new 52" plasma the day before the Super Bowl only to have the TWC box break the Super Bowl into 26 segments and then deauthorize in the middle of the 4th quarter, I'm not brimming with confidence.

They told me to reboot my TiVo (again) and then check it in 30 minutes. It's still not working. I'll ask them about the EMMs... maybe I'll get lucky.

Send me a pm with your contact information and I can fix you right now.

[tigo219]

I have a series 3 TiVo, with 2 SA Single stream Cbl Crds. About 2 weeks ago I had a problem where my HD channels totally cut out (after they had been working fine for about a month) and many of the SD channels were all mixed up. They problem seemed to solve itsself last Tuesday, all better. This was after being on the phone with Time Warner 3 times and with TiVo. TW told me it was a "software issue". Well I turn on the TV this morning, and the problem has returned. Does anyone have a clue what might be happening? I'm in New York City, so I have TWCNYC. Any advice or help would be much appreciated.

[mihalik]

Send me a pm with your contact information and I can fix you right now.

I want to thank cableguy for helping out us Austin customers. I've seen this story many times now. The tech says "it will be working in a couple hours" and leaves and then someone posts here and cableguy fixes it. Maybe the tech should just say "it will work when you talk to cableguy763".

[bobrt6676]

What's this I'm reading that people are paying for cable card installations? I have TWC in northeast Ohio. They made seven separate visits to get two cable cards working in my S3. They didn't charge me a cent for it. Is it because I upgraded to digital service?


Apparently no two TWC offices charge the same. I have yet to see any two cities with the same cost for installs or even Cable Cards. They must be able to set any price they pull out of their A----:rolleyes:

[ddstreet]

I haven't seen it mentioned in any of the posts, but I just got a TWC HD-DVR box which has a M-Card in the back of it. Can I just pull that out and put it into a Tivo HD? Or will that not work?

[cableguy763]

I haven't seen it mentioned in any of the posts, but I just got a TWC HD-DVR box which has a M-Card in the back of it. Can I just pull that out and put it into a Tivo HD? Or will that not work?

No, it will not work. Your cable co would still have to pair it to the tivo. Plus, if the cable co finds out you tampered with the box you could become liable for it.

[ddstreet]

Ah, ok.

So, a different question, does anyone know if TWC in Raleigh still requires a truck roll for CableCard installs or has anyone been able to just pick it up at the counter? Has anyone been able to pick up a CableCard from the TWC counter anywhere?

[mercurial]

Ah, ok.

So, a different question, does anyone know if TWC in Raleigh still requires a truck roll for CableCard installs or has anyone been able to just pick it up at the counter? Has anyone been able to pick up a CableCard from the TWC counter anywhere?

Still requires a truck roll though considering it took them almost 8 hours to an M-card working, I'm pretty sure they lost money on the install fee on this one. (One small victory for us... :p)

[Lorcane]

Can someone post a pic of what a motorola m-card looks like? The TW guy left at 8:30pm (he has been here since 6:00pm) and my cable cards still are not working right. We tried 4 different cards. The cable card operator said they where m-cards and set the system up that way. The local dispatcher said they are m-cards, however; my TiVo says they are s-cards. The TW guy and I agreed that the M on the card was just the motorola logo, same one that is on the razr. The TW guy rescheduled an appointment for my tomorrow at 3:30pm and he is going to come out again. I'm hoping that the local cable card dude knows what to do. He goes home at 5pm. Again I'm looking for a way to tell from just looking at the cable card if it is an m-card or s-card.

[SCSIRAID]

Can someone post a pic of what a motorola m-card looks like? The TW guy left at 8:30pm (he has been here since 6:00pm) and my cable cards still are not working right. We tried 4 different cards. The cable card operator said they where m-cards and set the system up that way. The local dispatcher said they are m-cards, however; my TiVo says they are s-cards. The TW guy and I agreed that the M on the card was just the motorola logo, same one that is on the razr. The TW guy rescheduled an appointment for my tomorrow at 3:30pm and he is going to come out again. I'm hoping that the local cable card dude knows what to do. He goes home at 5pm. Again I'm looking for a way to tell from just looking at the cable card if it is an m-card or s-card.

You didnt say which TiVo you have. The S3 will always call an M-Card an S-Card as it uses it in S-Card mode.

[noname_com]

CABLEGUY763 --- I am here in austin and want to say thank you for all your help with the TWC customers on this forum. It goes way beyond the call of duty. If you are ever at the draught house or gingerman here in austin give me a shout out, you will have an open invitation for a pint on me. or if homebrew is your thing I will set you some aside the next time i brew. You deserve it. I cannot imagine where most of these people would be right now with out the help of a cableguy763. A BIG SHOUT OUT AND THANK YOU!!! I am sure this goes for alot of other people on this forum as well.

[Lorcane]

You didnt say which TiVo you have. The S3 will always call an M-Card an S-Card as it uses it in S-Card mode.

I have an HD TiVo. I still would like to see a pic or a way to physically exam a cable card and tell if it is an M-card or S-card. The pic on the motorola website shows M-Cards as being red and saying M-Card on them, but I'm not sure if that is the real image or a placeholder image.

I currently have only 1 card installed, and it is allowing me to tune any non-encrytped channels, however; when I look at the conditional access screen I do not have a vaild host number, and most fields are either unknown or 0. The connected field says yes.

[briangraf]

Hello everyone.

I have a Series 3 Tivo, which I am trying to get hooked up with Time Warner Cable (formerly Adelphia) in Northeast Ohio. I had an installer out last weekend to install the CableCARDs. He brought two S-cards, the first worked immediately, the second started a firmware upgrade, which the Tivo said could take up to an hour to complete. The installer left while this was in progress and told me that I would likely need to call into their office to get my cards activated once the update was complete. After 9 hours of waiting for the upgrade, I gave up, ejected the bad card and happily used my Tivo in single tuner mode while waiting for another truck roll to replace the bad card.

I had the installer scheduled to come last night between 6pm and 8pm - so that I could be home to make sure it went well. The installer called my house at 4:00 and asked my wife if he could come by early. She agreed - i had given her basic instructions in case i was late. When the installer got there, he confidently told her that the problem was that our tivo didn't need two S cards, it needed 1 M-card. She had no reason to doubt him and he even showed her a variety of channels as "evidence" that it worked. Of course, they didn't try the dual tuner functionality - as that wouldn't have been possible with a single M-Card in a Series 3.

So, I get home. See that clearly there is only one tuner working and call Time Warner back. After 20 minutes on the phone waiting for the CS rep to relay my questions to "dispatch", I'm told that two turners simply wont work in my tivo and that if I want more of an explaination than that, I will have to wait 48 hours for someone to call me to give me an explaination - i'm not holding my breath.

I called back to CS and got a different rep. Asked to scehedule another CableCARD install and was told that my account was flagged and that they refused to provide a second card.

Any ideas? Am I stuck?

[dm-mm]

Time Warner Cable (formerly Adelphia) in Northeast Ohio.

Which area of former-Adelphia are you in?

I have a working S3 with two cards. My head-end is in New Philadephia.

[briangraf]

Which area of former-Adelphia are you in?

I have a working S3 with two cards. My head-end is in New Philadephia.

Macedonia

[dm-mm]

Macedonia



TWC NEO web site, complaint resolution notice:
http://www.timewarnercable.com/northeastohio/customer/fcc_notices.html

VP of Operations
Time Warner Cable
5520 Whipple Avenue NW
North Canton, OH 44720

Fax: 330-490-2557
Voice: 888-860-1420



I had to get them involved with my initial installation. Be polite but firm and you'll get results.

[DaveDFW]

I'm with TWC in Dallas, and I just had two cablecards in an S3 show as unpaired today. The conditional access screen showed "Val:?" which means it's not working.

(I have two others in another S3 that were unaffected.)

I tried to get the first-line phone support to check the numbers, but she absolutely wasn't interested, "Yeah yeah yeah, they look fine."

So of course TWC required a truck roll for this. So when the tech arrived, I heard him talking to dispatch, who told him to check the data numbers, as they'd been having problems with those changing.

Sure enough, when we compared the host ID and data displayed on Tivo with those in TWC's system, the datas were completely different.

This sounds very weird--is this a head end problem with TWC, or is Tivo spontaneously changing its data numbers?

This particular S3 has been up and working for at least two months with no issues.

Anyway, it ended up being a 5-minute service call to repair the cards' configuration.

TTYL
David

[cableguy763]

I'm with TWC in Dallas, and I just had two cablecards in an S3 show as unpaired today. The conditional access screen showed "Val:?" which means it's not working.

(I have two others in another S3 that were unaffected.)

I tried to get the first-line phone support to check the numbers, but she absolutely wasn't interested, "Yeah yeah yeah, they look fine."

So of course TWC required a truck roll for this. So when the tech arrived, I heard him talking to dispatch, who told him to check the data numbers, as they'd been having problems with those changing.

Sure enough, when we compared the host ID and data displayed on Tivo with those in TWC's system, the datas were completely different.

This sounds very weird--is this a head end problem with TWC, or is Tivo spontaneously changing its data numbers?

This particular S3 has been up and working for at least two months with no issues.

Anyway, it ended up being a 5-minute service call to repair the cards' configuration.

TTYL
David

The host id with your Tivo will always stay the same. Sounds like they screwed something up.

[DaveDFW]

The host id with your Tivo will always stay the same. Sounds like they screwed something up.

Yes, neither of my host IDs had changed, but the next line on the pairing screen, "data," was different. I'm not sure where the data numbers come from--are they embedded in the cablecards?

TTYL
David

[briangraf]

I had to get them involved with my initial installation. Be polite but firm and you'll get results.

Thank you very much! That was exactly what I was looking for.

Update: It took a little over a week, but TW responded to my letter of complaint. They say that they will be sending "their best technician" with another CC this coming Tuesday (3/4/2008). Will update again with the results. Thanks again dm-mm.

[cableguy763]

Yes, neither of my host IDs had changed, but the next line on the pairing screen, "data," was different. I'm not sure where the data numbers come from--are they embedded in the cablecards?

TTYL
David

Yes, the cable card id is tied to each cable card. Sounds like somebody fat fingered the keyboard when in the billing system.

[Lorcane]

Yippie...
Got 1 cable card working in my TiVoHD. :) took an hour talking with the tech's tech over the phone. I'm glad the guy who first tried to installed my cable cards left me that number. I did have to reboot the TiVoHD after the card finally got subscribed, for some reason the wrong tuner in the TiVoHD got assigned to the wrong cable card. The guy I talked to on the phone couldn't tell me how to visually inspect a cable card and know if its an M-card or S-card. He said they all look the same. :confused: At least now I have all my HBO and encrypted channels. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the 2nd card up and running. :up:

[drumdude]

Dealing with HD Tivo and TWC has been the worst experience! After about 25 visits they finally got my 3 Tivo's working. It definitely was more trouble than it's worth. In a year I plan to switch back to DirecTV.

[Lorcane]

Dealing with HD Tivo and TWC has been the worst experience! After about 25 visits they finally got my 3 Tivo's working. It definitely was more trouble than it's worth. In a year I plan to switch back to DirecTV.

I don't think it is TiVo's fault. I last night I finally found someone who knew what they were doing... took 30 minutes to get the card intialized, activated and subscribed. TWC needs to train their people better in the region where I live. What worries me is in the Austin area a few hundred miles north of me, TWC is starting to used alot of the digital switch channels. My line up only as a few, like the west coast HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime. I'm not sure if TWC is doing that because they need more channels or if they just want to make us cable card user suffer more for not using their cable boxes. Either way my region is so far behind, we only have about 12 HD channels in the line up.

[MicahG]

Hey everyone! I've been reading over pretty much this whole post and it's been totally helpful. I'm currently a TW Digital Cable subscriber with DVR-STB and am really considering the move to Tivo. I wanted to just reconfirm some things that are kind of lingering for me.

Going Tivo with TW CableCard is definitely cheaper than using the STB right? I'm really trying to cut back on bills

Also, with the CC... the way it works is that the CC(s) are plugged in to the Tivo and I receive programming through that. And the cost of the CC's vary, but seems like they are around $1.75 in my area (Huntington Beach, CA). Is there any other programming costs on top of that $1.75/mo? Like does it work the same as the STB where I have to pay certain amounts for certain Tiers? Or does the CC gives me all the channels it's capable of and I'm simply just paying the $1.75/mo?

I really appreciate how helpful this thread and forum has been and I'm really looking forward to joining the Tivo community!

Micah

[Pars22]

I'm considering moving from my TWC Explorer 8300HD to a Tivo S3 for the better video quality but a woman from TWC (that did not appear to be very knowledgable) told me in addition to losing In-Demand that there would be other HD channels that I would lose. She couldn't get specific on which ones - it sounded like a lame job of keeping me from switching to Tivo -

Is anyone aware of channels that are unavailable if using Tivo S3 and CC's?

Any plans on the S3 being functional w/bi-directional CC's?

Thanks for your expertise!

[MickeS]

Hey everyone! I've been reading over pretty much this whole post and it's been totally helpful. I'm currently a TW Digital Cable subscriber with DVR-STB and am really considering the move to Tivo. I wanted to just reconfirm some things that are kind of lingering for me.

Going Tivo with TW CableCard is definitely cheaper than using the STB right? I'm really trying to cut back on bills

Also, with the CC... the way it works is that the CC(s) are plugged in to the Tivo and I receive programming through that. And the cost of the CC's vary, but seems like they are around $1.75 in my area (Huntington Beach, CA). Is there any other programming costs on top of that $1.75/mo? Like does it work the same as the STB where I have to pay certain amounts for certain Tiers? Or does the CC gives me all the channels it's capable of and I'm simply just paying the $1.75/mo?

I really appreciate how helpful this thread and forum has been and I'm really looking forward to joining the Tivo community!

Micah

The TiVo with CableCARDs will replace your set top box. Whether it will be cheaper monthly with TiVo subscription + CableCARD rentals, not counting the cost of the TiVo, depends on what you have now, and what service tiers you have - a cable DVR often costs more than a TiVo, but a cable box will generally cost less. You'd need to look at the costs where you live.

You will still need to subscribe to the tiers, just like with a cable box. The only thing the CableCARDs do is replace the cable box.

[Lorcane]

I'm considering moving from my TWC Explorer 8300HD to a Tivo S3 for the better video quality but a woman from TWC (that did not appear to be very knowledgable) told me in addition to losing In-Demand that there would be other HD channels that I would lose. She couldn't get specific on which ones - it sounded like a lame job of keeping me from switching to Tivo -

Is anyone aware of channels that are unavailable if using Tivo S3 and CC's?

Any plans on the S3 being functional w/bi-directional CC's?

Thanks for your expertise!

From reading other ppls posts, many of the cable companies are adding new channels by using Switched Digital Video (SDV) Cablecards can't tune those channels in, because they are unidirectional, and SDV requires bidirectional connection. However, the sales rep should have been able to tell you which stations are SDV, so her ability to be specific was a load of bull$%(@.

Here is a link to the SDV forum channel

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=357703

[bobrt6676]

[QUOTE=Pars22;5987299]I'm considering moving from my TWC Explorer 8300HD to a Tivo S3 for the better video quality but a woman from TWC (that did not appear to be very knowledgable) told me in addition to losing In-Demand that there would be other HD channels that I would lose. She couldn't get specific on which ones - it sounded like a lame job of keeping me from switching to Tivo -

Is anyone aware of channels that are unavailable if using Tivo S3 and CC's?

Any plans on the S3 being functional w/bi-directional CC's?

Thanks for your expertise![/QUOTE

Depending on your area, SDV (switched digital video) seems to be causing many problems with receiving some HD channels. Read the SDV thread, you wil learn a lot.

[trol1374]

I bought a TivoHD and got the Mcard all set up and going. Next billing cycle my monthly bill jumped some 40 bucks. After a few calls, they get it back to where it was. Next bill, back up again. Few calls later they admit that since I no longer have a "box" that the promo price I was getting is null and void. They said they couldn't override the system. Talked with a manager and said she would send me a cable box and I get my promo price for a year. After all was said and done, I ended up with a cheaper monthly rate by getting the box (no charge). So, I do have my Tivo going and just have the box on another input.

[DrWho453]

I'm considering moving from my TWC Explorer 8300HD to a Tivo S3 for the better video quality but a woman from TWC (that did not appear to be very knowledgable) told me in addition to losing In-Demand that there would be other HD channels that I would lose. She couldn't get specific on which ones - it sounded like a lame job of keeping me from switching to Tivo -

Is anyone aware of channels that are unavailable if using Tivo S3 and CC's?

Any plans on the S3 being functional w/bi-directional CC's?

Thanks for your expertise!

From reading other ppls posts, many of the cable companies are adding new channels by using Switched Digital Video (SDV) Cablecards can't tune those channels in, because they are unidirectional, and SDV requires bidirectional connection. However, the sales rep should have been able to tell you which stations are SDV, so her ability to be specific was a load of bull$%(@.

Here is a link to the SDV forum channel

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=357703

Just to clear up some confusion here. Its not the cable card thats the problem. Cable cards will work unidirectional or bi-directional. Its the device that needs to be bi-directional. The tivo HD and series 3 are not bi-directional devices so PPV, On-Demand, and SDV will not work as is. The tuner resolver is supposed to fix the SDV issue.

If tivo were to go bi-directional, it would probably be in a future release of the hardware.

[drumdude]

I'm considering moving from my TWC Explorer 8300HD to a Tivo S3 for the better video quality but a woman from TWC (that did not appear to be very knowledgable) told me in addition to losing In-Demand that there would be other HD channels that I would lose. She couldn't get specific on which ones - it sounded like a lame job of keeping me from switching to Tivo -

Is anyone aware of channels that are unavailable if using Tivo S3 and CC's?

Any plans on the S3 being functional w/bi-directional CC's?

Thanks for your expertise!

You lose TBS, A&E, and MTV HD channels here in Charlotte NC. That's 3 but well worth the loss. The TWC DVR is absolute junk. We tried them.

[DrWho453]

You lose TBS, A&E, and MTV HD channels here in Charlotte NC. That's 3 but well worth the loss. The TWC DVR is absolute junk. We tried them.

Hmm, interesting. Here in Raleigh we get TBS, A&E, and MTV HD. Originally we couldn't get them but within the last couple of months they have been available on through the cable card. Although as SCSIRAID said somewhere on here they changed the compression and quality of other channels to do this. I don't watch them anyway so they I don't care that they are active or not except if I am going to be paying to have them, I expect to be able to watch them.

[Lorcane]

Just got the 2nd cablecard up and running on my TiVoHD. The technician was told but the phone operator that TiVos and Motorola cards have an issue. Supposedly the cards or the TiVo will lose the channel list. A reboot is required to get them back. Anyone know about this problem?

[falvarez]

i purchased a TiVo HD Box and ordered two cablecards from Time Warner Cable.
They first send a tech to install the cablecards, he was not able to get it to work. The next day they sent two techs. i was told by the techs that the Tivo will not work with their cablecards, and i will have to use one of their motorola dvr box. Is there anyone in inglewood having the same problem. Time Warner Cable needs to contract more professional installers!!!!

[cramer]

i was told by the techs that the Tivo will not work with their cablecards, and i will have to use one of their motorola dvr box.Wrong! They are required by law to support any certified device -- which the Tivo HD is. Call Tivo, Inc. Then file a complaint with the FCC and your local franchise authority.

It doesn't matter if their techs are idiots that will say such things. They said it, and the cable company is on the hook for it.

[Midwest User1]

Just an update. In the Milwaukee, WI. area I'm now getting the 5 additional HD channels that I had lost when switching from the Scientific Atlanta to my TIVO's. They must have taken these 5 channels OFF of the SDV network. Now I don't have to wait for the tuner resolver. I'm now getting ESPN2 HD, TBS HD, HGTV HD, HDT HD, A&E HD. I just noticed this yesterday but it had to have been within the last few days at the most that Time Warner started sending them.

[miller890]

In the past, I have had random channels go black which appeared as if they implemented SDV on those channels. It seems to occur on Sundays where I think they must hit all the cable cards to make sure they are in sync with what you are paying for. I have rebooted and this does not fix the problem, called TWC and asked them hit the cable cards. Typically the person asked if I had rebooted, then tries something which doesn't work. They stall by asking for the serial number printed on the cards, which they already have on the account (I never pulled a card for them.) They place me on hold and get someone that knows what they are doing and that usually fixes the loss of random channels. I think they must have a different process for the two different card types because they usually try a few times with the M-Cards. In the past year this has happend on four occasions with both S-Cards and M-Cards in both of my S3s.

[jdh2005]

Update - a tech who knows what he's doing and the local manager came out this afternoon and got both cards working :)

So anyone in the Beaumont, TX area having problems should be able to get them fixed. Tech's name is Fred and he did a good job - hardest part was him getting someone on the other end to do what he wanted - I'll never understand why they don't give them a laptop so they can connect and do it themselves if they insist on sending out a tech for a cablecard.

Well looks like they still don't have a good handle on it - my S3 is working fine with 2 single stream but they took my dad's tivoHD and can't get any cards working - they claimed they had #1 working today but when they brought it back it's not (unfortunately when I showed up they had it going through setup again so I couldn't check until after the manager left - he doesn't know anything anyway...)

They claim they don't have multi-stream cards and can't get the single stream working... they also claim to have worked with the tivo support but I'm not sure I believe them :mad:

Not sure what to do now - too bad we don't have someone local who can help like cableguy763 in Austin...

[scurby2]

Hi, I have TW in orange county. I want to get the tivo hd box and cable cards. I currently have the tw cable box on my hdtv. What am i going to sacrfice? Am i going to lose the On Demand functions (Howard TV)? Anything else I will lose it I go with Tivo hd? Thanks

[bobrt6676]

Hi, I have TW in orange county. I want to get the tivo hd box and cable cards. I currently have the tw cable box on my hdtv. What am i going to sacrfice? Am i going to lose the On Demand functions (Howard TV)? Anything else I will lose it I go with Tivo hd? Thanks

Switching to TiVoHD you will lose:
1. All on-demand programming. (Including HBO/Showtime on-demand.)
2. If Orange County TWC uses SDV some HD channels
3. About $400 ( TiVoHD, CC install and network adapter)
4. Time (TWC may or may not get CC’s right.
5. Possibly more per month charge depending on what the charge is for CC’s per month and TiVo per month charge

Switching to TiVoHD you will gain:

1. Higher Quality picture
2. Superior DVR functionality
3. NETWORKING!!!!!
4. Amazon unbox
5. NETWORKING!!!!!
6. Expandability(can you say 1TB or more)
7. TiVo community(great support from the Experts here)
8. Possibly less per month. (1 M-card, MSD or Lifetime)

Can you tell I love the networking capabilities!!;)

[DrWho453]

Switching to TiVoHD you will lose:
1. All on-demand programming. (Including HBO/Showtime on-demand.)
2. If Orange County TWC uses SDV some HD channels
3. About $400 ( TiVoHD, CC install and network adapter)
4. Time (TWC may or may not get CC’s right.
5. Possibly more per month charge depending on what the charge is for CC’s per month and TiVo per month charge

Switching to TiVoHD you will gain:

1. Higher Quality picture
2. Superior DVR functionality
3. NETWORKING!!!!!
4. Amazon unbox
5. NETWORKING!!!!!
6. Expandability(can you say 1TB or more)
7. TiVo community(great support from the Experts here)
8. Possibly less per month. (1 M-card, MSD or Lifetime)

Can you tell I love the networking capabilities!!;)

You forgot items 9 and 10. NETWORKING!!!!! :) he he he LOL

[NYDR27]

Having read this thread and all of the troubles that people are having with their Tivos and getting their cable cards to work got me really down about having my own installed. But having had my Cable Card installed today, I feel obliged to let anyone reading this thread know that I did not have any troubles getting mine to work and that there is hope. Not to rub it in anyones face but Its kind of depressing having to read all of these horror stories.

I had a multi-stream SA card installed in Manhattan just in case anyone was wondering. The only time the cable installer deviated from the Tivo Instructions was when the Cable Card performed a 20-30 min firmware upgrade. Other than that, everything went really well. I performed a guided setup afterwards and all my channels came up.

P.S.- If you're only getting 100 channels, then it's because you need to repeat the guided setup a second time after you install your cable card. I know it's been mentioned before but it seems like an easy mistake that alot of people make. My installer said he gets one of these Tivos about every other month or so but he likes the practice. Sorry for the long post.

[xcfmx]

Time Warner North Texas (Dallas) appears to not have their act together yet. Tech came out today and installed the cablecard but it hasn't properly paired. I received the basic digital channels but none of my HD Tier and expanded digital channels. Conditional Access screen shows Auth:MP instead of S or Subscribed. I've called twice and nobody can fix it. I believe (almost sure of) that the problem is the "data" number is not entered in the computer on their end, but the person i spoke to says it wasn't anywhere on his screen to enter...

How can I get this fixed without losing my sanity?

[nhw3w]

Is it possible that TWC NYC has turned the corner on cablecard installs with TiVo?

My installer came last Friday to get my TiVo HDs (2) up and running. Although it took about three hours becuase the cards had not been provisioned properly and there we long "queues", I finally got all my channels about 1 hour AFTER the installer left.

I begged him not to leave mentioning the horror stories from the forum but his dispatcher demanded that he leave.

So far so good but I did experience a random reboot yesterday...seems OK now.

[DaveDFW]

Time Warner North Texas (Dallas) appears to not have their act together yet. Tech came out today and installed the cablecard but it hasn't properly paired. I received the basic digital channels but none of my HD Tier and expanded digital channels. Conditional Access screen shows Auth:MP instead of S or Subscribed. I've called twice and nobody can fix it. I believe (almost sure of) that the problem is the "data" number is not entered in the computer on their end, but the person i spoke to says it wasn't anywhere on his screen to enter...

How can I get this fixed without losing my sanity?

You'll probably have to get a truck roll--we as customers can't talk to the guys who provision the cablecards. It sounds silly, but they'll send out someone to relay numbers over the phone.

This how it will probably happen:

* Onsite tech will read the number from the screen
* Onsite tech will transcribe it to a piece of paper (hopefully without error)
* Onsite tech will call someone
* Onsite tech will read off their handwritten notes (hopefully without error)
* The person on the phone will write it down (hopefully without error)
* The person on the phone will transcribe their written notes into the system (hopefully without error)

The possibility to screw this up is enormous.

Keep checking the "conditional access" screen when they're pairing the cards. For the M cards TWC is using in DFW, you'll have to see "Val:V" before you'll see the encrypted channels. You'll have to back out of that screen, and go back in to see any updates.

When they're hitting the cards, you'll see weird things in the Tivo interface. Like "Cablecard not inserted," "Error 161-4," "path/path/path/file not found," you can ignore all that. The Tivo doesn't handle the cablecard initialization very gracefully. Just acknowledge the error, and go check "conditional access" again.

There is no delay in the provisioning process--it's practically immediate. If you're not getting your channels when the tech is there, they will not fix themselves after he has left.

TTYL
David

[devilsushi]

Lessons Learned:
Just a heads up, El Paso's TWC is still messed up, majority of the (contracted technicians ) do not know how to install the cable cards or know the difference btw SS and MS Cards, on top of never seeing one before. They say swing by the warehouse to see if they have any but in the past week they say its out of stock when the main office (which is in front of the warehouse) say its in stock. Local tech support says a TWC technician not a contractor has access to it.
Request a in house Tech and a MS Card, and better to call for an appointment then walk in and get one since the front desk people do not know much and its not worth waiting in line as its always busy.


A week of Frustration, and the highlight of the breakdown in communication, I wish I was still in the Los Angeles or San Diego Area... btw theres no ETA on SDV in ELP.

[bweiss]

I'm in the SoCal area; use Time Warner Cable. Just plunked down 300 for a TIVO HD. Time Warner cannot seem to figure out how to get the cable cards to work. I only get half the channels. I've done my research and KNOW that the card is not "paired" to my TIVO set but TWC keeps saying it is and they keep sending out techs to my house. Be careful - the folks at the cable company are not trained in these complicated cable card issues.

[gamo62]

Here in Cincinnati, with the TivoHD and the Digital Tier, I was told that we are unable to get most channels above 964. No TNT HD, Mojo, Universal, HD Net, ESPN, ESPN2, A&E HD, History HD, TBS HD. Channels 969, 970, 975, 976, 978, 979, 980, 981, and 982 are supposed to be on the Standard HD tier. none of these channels are listed as being part of the "Digital" tier. Supposedly, you can get Standard service and hget these channels. Anyone in Cincinnati have these channels or a reason they are not available?

[sidp78]

hey guys ive researched and researched and talked to tivo and time warner 2 dozen times and still nothing. this is my last resort and maybe one of you can help me out. so here is all the info you need:
i had a tivo single tuner 140 hour and it died last week (3rd tivo to die in less than a year!). so tivo replaced it with a dual tuner series 2. the way i have it plugged in is directly into the cable output in the wall. the REASON i have it this way is because i have split the cable signal and have the other coxial going to my time warner DVR cable box. the cable box is NOT connected to the Tivo. they are completely independent of each other. the reason i wanted this setup was so that i can have tivo record all of my shows without problems or conflict, AND i can have the cable box DVR record in high def at the same time (or even just watch live tv in high def) while the tivo is recording. with my old single tuner tivo, this setup worked fine, and i recieved all channels from about 1-76. now the problem is with this new tivo dual tuner, i only get about channels 1-30 and cant get any of the other channels above it. yep i have it setup for NO cable box...yep i double checked and all channels are listed in my channel list...im just SO frustrated and have wasted so many hours on this, but frankly, i love to watch tivo with my wife during quality hours and also download it to tivo to go when we travel. so this is important to me to making it work. anything you can do to help would be SO appreciated.

on a side note: i even set it up the way its supposed to be setup through the cable box, just to see if it worked. i DID recieve the channels above 30, but it created more problems because when the cable box DVR was recording something, the tivo got screwy and couldnt switch the channels on the cable box and would then record whatever the cable box was recording, even though it thought it was recording something else frmo my season pass. this setup just wont work.

some options i have considered: give up on tivo alltogether. get an tivo HD and use cable cards. go back to a single tuner tivo and see if that works again.

im nto sure what else to do but these options are obviously not simple or cheap alternatives. PLEASE HELP GUYS!!!

[m_jonis]

This should probably be in the Help Forum or even the Dual Tuner section.
That being said, it's quite possible your cable company only has channels 1-30 as "analog" and able to be received by a regular tuner. Do you get all channels above 30 if you connect the cable to your TV? (I know you said your old setup worked, but maybe your Cable CO changed things)? Also, just because the channels show up in the Tivo guide list does not mean you actually GET them.

[sidp78]

if i hook the cable directly to the tv i dont even get the basic cable channels....just a few local channels

[gamo62]

if i hook the cable directly to the tv i dont even get the basic cable channels....just a few local channels

Sounds like you may have a trap on your line.

[flynndt]

I've posted this in the TivoToGo forum, but haven't found much help yet. I'm wondering if anyone else is having issues with many channels having copyright protection flags on them? I recently upgraded from my Series 2 to the Series 3 HD, and TW installed 2 Mcards in the Series 3. With my old Tivo, I never saw a flag. With the Series 3, initially everything was flagged except a couple of the major networks in HD. I called Tivo and they said it wasn't the unit. I called TW and at first was told the flags are imposed by the networks and they have nothing to do with it. Then I talked with a supervisor and told her I thought the major networks legally couldn't impose a flag, and I complained that even PBS was flagged. She called me back a few days later and said that she had sent my case to the IT dept and that the problem would be fixed after 6pm that evening. Now the flags are gone on everything up to Channel 25 and the major networks on HD. None of the channels I watch can be transferred except Discovery (analog, not HD). I put another call in to the supervisor and she's looking into it. I pointed out to her that there are some shows that run on both Discovery and the Science Channel and that the same show is flagged on Science Channel but not Discovery. Obviously this isn't coming from the network. Anyone else experiencing this?

[DaveDFW]

...Anyone else experiencing this?

Yes, Time-Warner in DFW also marks practically all the digital channels as 0x02. This doesn't prevent recording, but does prevent MRV'ing.

If you're not able to record at all, it sounds like they're flagging as 0x03, which expires the shows after 90 minutes.

TTYL
David

[m_jonis]

I've posted this in the TivoToGo forum, but haven't found much help yet. I'm wondering if anyone else is having issues with many channels having copyright protection flags on them? I recently upgraded from my Series 2 to the Series 3 HD, and TW installed 2 Mcards in the Series 3. With my old Tivo, I never saw a flag. With the Series 3, initially everything was flagged except a couple of the major networks in HD. I called Tivo and they said it wasn't the unit. I called TW and at first was told the flags are imposed by the networks and they have nothing to do with it. Then I talked with a supervisor and told her I thought the major networks legally couldn't impose a flag, and I complained that even PBS was flagged. She called me back a few days later and said that she had sent my case to the IT dept and that the problem would be fixed after 6pm that evening. Now the flags are gone on everything up to Channel 25 and the major networks on HD. None of the channels I watch can be recorded except Discovery (analog, not HD). I put another call in to the supervisor and she's looking into it. I pointed out to her that there are some shows that run on both Discovery and the Science Channel and that the same show is flagged on Science Channel but not Discovery. Obviously this isn't coming from the network. Anyone else experiencing this?

Yes, TW Albany, NY has ALL channels set to 0x02. They did this when they implemented SDV about a month ago. I complained and they fixed it (supposedly) and emailed me stating that they were now adhering to "Corporate Policy and FCC Regulations". However, they only set the Local HD channels to 0x00. All the rest (including analog locals and PBS) are still set to 0x02. A blatant violation of FCC regs. I've submitted a formal complaint to the NYS PSC (for all the good it will do).

[flynndt]

Sorry - I edited my initial post to say most channels are flagged so I can't transfer to PC (I can record them). The CCI byte code is set to 0x02 on these channels. I have TWC out of Newburgh NY and I'm just hoping the supervisor will actually be able to help me with this. I'll post any results I get.

[cwoody222]

You'll probably have to get a truck roll--we as customers can't talk to the guys who provision the cablecards. It sounds silly, but they'll send out someone to relay numbers over the phone.

This how it will probably happen:

* Onsite tech will read the number from the screen
* Onsite tech will transcribe it to a piece of paper (hopefully without error)
* Onsite tech will call someone
* Onsite tech will read off their handwritten notes (hopefully without error)
* The person on the phone will write it down (hopefully without error)
* The person on the phone will transcribe their written notes into the system (hopefully without error)

The possibility to screw this up is enormous.

Keep checking the "conditional access" screen when they're pairing the cards. For the M cards TWC is using in DFW, you'll have to see "Val:V" before you'll see the encrypted channels. You'll have to back out of that screen, and go back in to see any updates.

When they're hitting the cards, you'll see weird things in the Tivo interface. Like "Cablecard not inserted," "Error 161-4," "path/path/path/file not found," you can ignore all that. The Tivo doesn't handle the cablecard initialization very gracefully. Just acknowledge the error, and go check "conditional access" again.

There is no delay in the provisioning process--it's practically immediate. If you're not getting your channels when the tech is there, they will not fix themselves after he has left.

TTYL
David

Took my one friend with a new TiVoHD and TW CableCARDs 2 weeks and 3 truckrolls until she could get ALL her channels.

It was their mistake, in the end. Surprise!

[subVert]

All I can say is wow! I had myself all worked up from reading the horror stories on my forum, but Time Warner actually sent someone who had seen a TiVo before. Showed up at about 9:15 for an 8am-noon window. I was worried because it been snowing here for hours and the roads look bad. I asked for two cards when I made the order, didn't specify single or multistram . He came with a bunch and said, "Let me try a multistream First".

He wasn't the fastest at navigating the TiVo menus, but he knew what he was looking for and got it up and running in less than 30 minutes. It took about 10 minutes for the cablecard to be recognized to his satisfaction and then he called in and the channels started to pop up.

I didn't get rid of my TWC DVR yet, so I've been toggling between them and was amazed to see that the TiVoHD output seemed much sharper.

He told me that there were three guys who handle the cablecards in the area, but I don't know if he meant Staten Island, or all 5 boros.

[JYoung]

I just found out that Time-Warner is adding a digital programming fee for additional CableCards in Southern California.
http://www.timewarnerla.com/pricingGuides/



CableCARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 1.75
CableCARD for 2nd or additional TVs
(includes Digital programming fee) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 4.25
Analog Receiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 4.25
Remote Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 0.19
Digital Programming Fee for Additional Digital Receivers
(2nd and each additional Receiver) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 2.50


If I get CableCards for my S3 and HD, I have the sneaking feeling that they'll claim that dual Cablecards in the S3 count as an additional receiver.

So potentially, $7.00 a month for the Series 3 and $4.25 for the HD, assuming they give me an M-Card.

[gamo62]

I was told by a tech here in Cincinnati, that the warehouse now carries MStream cards. I have an appointment on Sunday for them to come and swap out my 2 singles for 1 multi. Ever since I upgraded to the digital tier, I get some channels on one CC, and some on the other.

[gamo62]

***Update***
A tech was scheduled for Sunday, but called during his arrival window and said that he was unable to get CC's because of the warehouse being closed on the weekends. Called and got a $20 credit for a no show.

This morning, one did come out, took out the two S-Cards, and put in one M-card. As soon as the firmware update was done, he paired the cards and everything works. The firmware update took most of the time. About 30 minutes.

So. If you live in the TWC Cincinnati converage area, M-Cards ARE available. If they say otherwise, refer them here.

[aymanme]

For over a year my system worked semi successfully (TWC Austin, TX), meaning I could reboot one/day and it would work ok.

All of a sudden last week one card stopped receiving any control messages so I was limited to analog only. I called and an actual TWC tech came (not a contractor). After calling the mothership, the determination was made that one of my cards was lost and the other belonged to another customer. The whereabouts of the cards assigned to me is unknown. They replaced the one card that was reported lost with another new M stream card. So I am happy in that respect, but ... in passing I thought that the technician stated since he gave me another card, I would now have 3 on my account. Does anyone know if that is true ... it stinks to not get all the channels, but to pay extra for that opportunity is even lamer.

Way back in Jan of 07, my posts are here somewhere about how many techs and cards it took to get it working (and I am 100% certain that is where the card mixup took place).

[cableguy763]

For over a year my system worked semi successfully (TWC Austin, TX), meaning I could reboot one/day and it would work ok.

All of a sudden last week one card stopped receiving any control messages so I was limited to analog only. I called and an actual TWC tech came (not a contractor). After calling the mothership, the determination was made that one of my cards was lost and the other belonged to another customer. The whereabouts of the cards assigned to me is unknown. They replaced the one card that was reported lost with another new M stream card. So I am happy in that respect, but ... in passing I thought that the technician stated since he gave me another card, I would now have 3 on my account. Does anyone know if that is true ... it stinks to not get all the channels, but to pay extra for that opportunity is even lamer.

Way back in Jan of 07, my posts are here somewhere about how many techs and cards it took to get it working (and I am 100% certain that is where the card mixup took place).

You should absolutely not have any extra cards on your account. Whenever a tech does a swap the card they are swapping goes into the tech's inventory list. The tech does a weekly inventory count, so it would show him missing a card. Not good at all for the tech. So, send me a pm with your contact info and I can tell you exactly what is on your account and what you are getting charged for.

[gamo62]

You should absolutely not have any extra cards on your account. Whenever a tech does a swap the card they are swapping goes into the tech's inventory list. The tech does a weekly inventory count, so it would show him missing a card. Not good at all for the tech. So, send me a pm with your contact info and I can tell you exactly what is on your account and what you are getting charged for.

Here in Cincinnati it's a little different. They pick up the CC's at the warehouse on the day of the call. The tech who came out on Monday brought two M-cards from the warehouse just in case one did not work. Fortunately it did.

[JimWall]

In Cincinnati I can get TNT HD, ESPN, ESPN2, A&E HD, History HD, TBS HD on my cable cards. Some used to be SDV but were changed in the last month. I could always get TNT HD and Discovery HD.

[gamo62]

In Cincinnati I can get TNT HD, ESPN, ESPN2, A&E HD, History HD, TBS HD on my cable cards. Some used to be SDV but were changed in the last month. I could always get TNT HD and Discovery HD.


Since I got the new M-card, I get all of those as well. How does one tell if a channel is SDV? Thanks.

[need2act]

I'm totally with you, a page or two ago in this forum I mentioned that my bill went from 61.50 (DTValue package) to 66.85 with CC because TWCNYC only does "a la carte" pricing with CC's. To me this breaks FCC rules, you can't be told that you have to provide a service than price it significantly higher than using the box. And I have to point out that the DTValue package that "includes a cable box" also includes a CC by default since TWC is required to use CC's in it's own boxes as well. So now I'm being charged more and getting less.

I tried to find the right complaint form for the FCC, but the one I found linked in here somewhere pointed to a form that had lots of questions about telephone lines...not sure it's correct. If anyone can tell me the link to the correct form to file a complaint with the FCC over services relating to Cable please let me know!

In mid-February 2008, I too have been inquiring about pricing and came up against the same TWCNYC a la carte pricing plan for CC user. Just as you wrote, TWNYC wants more for you to rent their CCs than to rent their Cable box. And it does seem completely unfair and not in the spirit of the FCC guidelines for competition. Their pricing can only be based on 'loss of potential income' and not on 'cost of providing service'.

Any updates on this? Please keep me posted.

[lousybeatnik]

SO
I am in the Killeen Texas area and I just got back from Iraq and the first thing I did was go look for a Tivo for my HD TV and so I decided to settle on the HD Tivo. I use to have a series 1 tivo back in the day which I loved as I loved to mod as I upgraded the hard drive and added in the networking feature. I loved my series one as it had a lifetime subscription and well it made college so much nicer. So now here I am with a Series 3 and even thou I am unable to mod it. Or I think I am unable to the cable cards made me think I would be able to do something with them. The technician left an hour ago and setup took about an hour and a half. It was not smooth as the technician had never done one before and no one at my local time warner had to go off of a supplied document with some wrong information. At first he came with just one card and said he had to come back however I looked at the card and it was a MC card and I assured him it would work. Reading these forms I did not think they would have the MC cards and I would have to have 2 SD cards. It took a while of going thru the reboot and guided setup where we both expected the card to fail but to mine and his surprise it worked. I now have all channels on the very first try. It seamed to be everyones first time. So I am out alot of on-demand channels but I dont watch them anyhow and I even have all of my local HD channels. I seam to have a few channels in my HD teir that I have not paid for but I get them so I am not expecting to keep them.

Anyhow my experience so far is great, Time Warner in my area had no idea on what to do, they seam to hate cable cards but my tivo is up and running and so far so good, however just trying to get the cable card was a hassle as they try very hard to sell the on-demand feature but as I have said I am not really into that

[SCSIRAID]

SO
I am in the Killeen Texas area and I just got back from Iraq and the first thing I did was go look for a Tivo for my HD TV and so I decided to settle on the HD Tivo. I use to have a series 1 tivo back in the day which I loved as I loved to mod as I upgraded the hard drive and added in the networking feature. I loved my series one as it had a lifetime subscription and well it made college so much nicer. So now here I am with a Series 3 and even thou I am unable to mod it. Or I think I am unable to the cable cards made me think I would be able to do something with them. The technician left an hour ago and setup took about an hour and a half. It was not smooth as the technician had never done one before and no one at my local time warner had to go off of a supplied document with some wrong information. At first he came with just one card and said he had to come back however I looked at the card and it was a MC card and I assured him it would work. Reading these forms I did not think they would have the MC cards and I would have to have 2 SD cards. It took a while of going thru the reboot and guided setup where we both expected the card to fail but to mine and his surprise it worked. I now have all channels on the very first try. It seamed to be everyones first time. So I am out alot of on-demand channels but I dont watch them anyhow and I even have all of my local HD channels. I seam to have a few channels in my HD teir that I have not paid for but I get them so I am not expecting to keep them.

Anyhow my experience so far is great, Time Warner in my area had no idea on what to do, they seam to hate cable cards but my tivo is up and running and so far so good, however just trying to get the cable card was a hassle as they try very hard to sell the on-demand feature but as I have said I am not really into that

Welcome Back!!! Thank you for your service!!! You are gonna love your THD.

[JimWall]

If you tune your tivo to the channel and it shows the Pay Per View video loop the I assume it is SDV with the PPV ad being the default channel.
As a side note you can call Cincinnati TW and ask for a 1 to 2 year contract bundle. I was able to save $30 off my bill for Digial Cable and high speed roadrunner.

[dtmille2]

SDV Channel Listing for Greensboro and Winston-Salem NC

After speaking with 4 different customer service reps one of them finally just said she would send me a list of channels I cannot receive with cable cards (and thus Tivo HD).

Two days later, I received a 3 page printout in the mail, showing the channels that are "switched digital" in the Winston-Salem and Greensboro NC areas. I've decided to post the lists below so that others can know ahead of time what channels they can or cannot receive from Time Warner in this area.

Here is the text from the top of the printout:

"The following channels are called "switch digital" channels and are not available with cable card (until such time as we have 2 way capable cards). Switch digital is a method to save bandwidth in order to improve overall quality by suppressing certain channels in a node until a customer in that node actually switches to that channel."

Switch Ditial Line Up
Greensboro and Winston-Salem

176 Azteca
492 Celebrity Shopping
162 Cinelatino
163 CNN en Esp
164 Discovery en espanol
325 ESPN PPV 1
326 ESPN PPV 2
327 ESPN PPV 3
328 ESPN PPV 4
329 ESPN PPV 5
330 ESPN PPV 6
143 ESPNU
165 EWTN en Espanol
173 Galavision
491 Gems TV
411 HBO HD West
403 HBO2W
409 HBOLW
401 HBOW
413 MAXW
169 MTV Spanish
167 MUN2
300 NBA Preview
345/360 NHL/MLB1
354/369 NHL/MLB10
355/370 NHL/MLB11
356/371 NHL/MLB12
357/372 NHL/MLB13
358/373 NHL/MLB14
346/361 NHL/MLB2
347/362 NHL/MLB3
348/363 NHL/MLB4
349/364 NHL/MLB5
350/365 NHL/MLB6
351/366 NHL/MLB7
352/367 NHL/MLB8
353/368 NHL/MLB9
170 Puma
434 SHOFW
493 Shop at Home
428 SHOSW
426 SHOTW
422 SHOW
437 Showtime HD West
424 SHOXW
168 Sorpresa
301 Team1
302 Team2
303 Team3
304 Team4
305 Team5
306 Team6
307 Team7
308 Team8
309 Team9
174 Telefutura
439 TMCW
441 TMCXW
172 Univision
171 Video Rolla
552 TBS HD
236 Playboy Tv
237 Ten Clips
238 Ten Blue
239 Ten Net
240 Ten Blox
122 FOX BN
569 GOLF/VERSUS
554 A&E HD
561 UNIVERSAL HD
555 HISTORY HD
575 CNN HD
581 LIFETIME MOVIES HD
557 HGTV HD
558 FOOD HD

Greensboro specific switched digital channels:

42 TV Guide Ash
42 TV Guide Burl
42 TV Guide Meb
42 TV Guide Rock
2 Gso Educational
2 Rockingham Edu
8 Public Access Gso
5 Burl Community Access

Winston-Salem specific switched digital channels:

2 Forsyth County Sch.
6 WS Public Access
12 WS TV Guide
13 WS City TV 13
53 WS Leased Access
13 Lexington City channel
13 Thomasville City Channel
2 Davidson County Tv Guide
13 Surry Comm College Channel
6 S/S/Y Bulletin board
12 Mocksville TV Guide


This printout was dated 12/4/2007. We are supposed to receive several other digital channels in the low 100's that we don't get, but we do seem to get the HD channels that we are supposed to receive and that aren't on this list.

Hope this helps!

[dtmille2]

Just talked to tech support at Time Warner, and they seem to think that I'm having signal strength issues that are keeping me from getting some of these channels. The will be out tomorrow night and I'll try to post an update. Maybe it's the signal, maybe not :)

[Sheils]

[QUOTE=subVert;6009766]All I can say is wow! I had myself all worked up from reading the horror stories on my forum, but Time Warner actually sent someone who had seen a TiVo before.

That makes me feel a whole lot better. I live in Brooklyn, and have a TWC guy coming tomorrow to install the cards. I'm keeping me fingers crossed...

[Sheils]

Have they started using switched video yet? If that's the case, my TiVo HD will be going back before it really gets warmed up! Too bad I didn't read about this until I ordered the thing :confused:

[tgirard]

Howdy... I've been lurking a while and wanted to add my two cents about TWC in Albany, NY and how they handled my CableCARD install.

In short, it was great. The phone call to customer service was brief and my order taken quickly. The rep who answered the phone had answers for all of my questions and actually understood what I wanted. At the time she told me that multistream cards were not available, but that the tech would be told to roll with at least two singles.

The tech arrived today and immediately knew how to handle the install on my TivoHD (he'd actually done several already). I asked if he had the two single stream cards (fully expecting something to have gone wrong between my order and the truck roll) and was pleasantly surprised to hear that he'd brought 4 single AND two multi, "just in case".

The pairing went flawlessly (albeit slowly) with the first multistream card and within an hour the HD was happily decoding.

Also, the tech was more than happy to email me his corporate memo enumerating all the SDV channels (as this info is nowhere to be found on the official TWC website). And on that front, he confirmed that TWC should be receiving 2-way comm dongles for testing sometime before June 08.

So, despite all the horror stories we hear in this thread, I just wanted to share my pleasant experience with anyone in the Albany area who's looking into a Series3/HD. The install isn't that bad when you get a tech who knows what he's doing.

So... here's the list of SDV channels on TWC in Albany, NY as of 2/20:

Channel(s) Handled By SDV (86)

1
20 (WYPX)
110 Disney East
215 Discovery Health
375 (EWTN)
434 Turner Classic Movies
551 (Fox Business News)
570 CSPAN
575 CSPAN2
**675 (NHL)
677 (NBATV)
708 (HBO West)
709 (HBO2 West)
710 (HBO Signature West)
711 (HBO Family West)
712 (HBO Comedy West)
713 (HBO Zone West)
714 (HBO Latino West)
725 (Cinemax West) 726 (More MAX West)
727 (Action MAX West)
728 (Thriller Max West)
747 (Showtime 2 West)
748 (Showtime 3 West)
749 (Showtime Extreme West)
750 (Showtime Beyond West)
754 (Showtime Next West)
755 (Showtime Family Zone West)
756 (Showtime Women West)
763 (TMC West)
764 (TWC Extra West)
776 Starz West
777 Starz Cinema West
788 Encore West
901 Univision
1107 TWTV7
1109 QVC
1115 Home Shopping Network 1120 ShopNBC
1823 Weather Channel HD
1839 History Channel HD
1841 HGTV HD
1842 Food HD
1851 Fox Business News HD
1846 CNN Channel HD
1864 Lifetime Movie Network HD
1873 Versus/Golf Channel HD
** 1874 Outdoor Channel
** 1875 (NHL HD)
1876 National Geographic Channel HD
1890 Starz East HD
1981 Starz West HD
1910-1919 NBA League Pass
1930 thru 1943 NHL/MLB services
1950-1956 ESPN Game Plan

Cheers!
--Tom

[Sheils]

So that means there are 86 channels that you don't get thru your TiVo?

[tgirard]

So that means there are 86 channels that you don't get thru your TiVo?Correct. In practice, about only 6 of those really affect me as I might actually watch them. I don't have any premium channels and only subscribe to the sports tier in the 600's which isn't provided via SDV.

I have a S2 with a standard def STB in the bedroom, so I can still watch almost everything I want. HistoryHD and WeatherChannelHD are the only two that I really miss out on.

Hopefully the tuning resolver will be available sooner rather than later. ;)

[laleytx]

I'm working with TWC-SA to get my TiVo HD box up and running... but after 2 truck rolls was only getting analog channels plus local HD (which don't work without the CableCards...) but I wasn't receiving any HD package or digital tier channels.... seems to be a provisioning issue... but what do I know?

Truck Roll #1 - 2/22 - Install... for $29.99

Techs installed an M-Card read the host ID and MAC address to someone at TWC, and left saying the digital tier channels would show up "in a few hours..." Umm... nope. The tech told me they were told to try to talk me out of using CableCard... I told them that I had been through 3 SA 8300HD DVRs... none of which recorded HD shows without major problems (audio or video loss) after a few months of use...

Truck Roll #2 - 2/27 - Install ReDeux

Nice tech... checks levels at the pedestal, Scientific Atlanta House Amp, and the TiVo HD box... all ok... STILL decides on running a new cable line from the ped to the house to eliminate any potential signal issues... Tries repairing the M-Card with no luck... also tries switching from one M-Card to two S-Cards... no luck... still only getting analog plus local HD... nothing over channel 112.

Truck Roll #3 - 2/28 - The tech called TiVo and ASKED QUESTIONS! (Tech #1299)

Most thorough tech yet. Checks levels everywhere... Talks with TiVo tech supports and completely resets the box. Tech said he found that the "standard" codes were missing and had to be "forced"... Whatever that means. Removes both S-Cards, resets the box and the account and starts the CableCard install from scratch pairing each card one at a time... and... SUCCESS... except for the SDV channels... which seems to not mesh with the FCC compatibility requirements.

It looks like the easy way to do it it to micromanage the techs to do the install right the first time... TWC should be better at this, both for saving the customers frustration and saving TWC money for more truck rolls.

The funny thing is - if I could have picked up the CC and done the install myself, TWC would have saved three truck rolls and I would have working TV a week earlier.

UPDATE - Time Warner San Antonio's Programming for CableCard is outright lousy. The only channels available in HD are TNT, ESPN, Discovery HD Theater, Fox SportsNET, MOJO, and Universal HD... Meaning I'm not getting 19 channels that should be available.

Any update on when the proposed SDV adaptor (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/NCTA-and-TiVo-Announce-SDV-Solution-89750)will be available?

[derspiess]

Here in Cincinnati it's a little different. They pick up the CC's at the warehouse on the day of the call. The tech who came out on Monday brought two M-cards from the warehouse just in case one did not work. Fortunately it did.

I just took the plunge with my TiVoHD that arrived yesterday (was on the fence but could not pass up the $199 refurb deal). I have an "all day" appointment with TW-Cincy set for Tuesday since that's the earliest time & my wife should be home all day.

I'm sure it was for nothing, but when I made the appointment, I asked that the phone rep mention in the work order that I am requesting a multistream card.

Wish me luck...

[Hot Karl]

I am a TW Customer in the Milwaukee area.

The TW representative I spoke told me that TW CableCards only work with "Series 3" Tivos. I took that to mean both TivoHDs and proper Series 3 Tivos (because, as I understand it, they have the same architecture.)

Could any of you verify luck with using a TivoHD and Time Warner Cable Cards?

Thanks!

[skaggs]

Could any of you verify luck with using a TivoHD and Time Warner Cable Cards?

TiVo HD works with TWC issued cable cards. I have two TiVo HD's and Albany TWC. Make sure you request multistream cards (or "Mcards"). The cust. service rep on the phone may try to tell you they don't have them, but they do. Ask the CSR to "humor" you and place a note on the work order to request Mcards. The field technicians know what they are.

Just don't be surprised when you don't get half or more of the HD channels because TWC uses switched digital video technology.

[DaveDFW]

I just read that Time-Warner in North Texas is planning to roll out more HD channels in Dallas, Mesquite, Plano, and Richardson on March 27:

golf/versus hd
a&e hd
food network hd
hgtv hd
national geographic hd
history channel hd
tbs hd
cnn hd
fsn sw hd
and two unknown hd channels coming two weeks later

In those four cities, we should be in good shape with our Tivos. But they also say the "outlying" areas (which I guess means everywhere else?) will get these channels by the end of 2008, but delivered via SDV.

Thanks,
David

[gamo62]

I just took the plunge with my TiVoHD that arrived yesterday (was on the fence but could not pass up the $199 refurb deal). I have an "all day" appointment with TW-Cincy set for Tuesday since that's the earliest time & my wife should be home all day.

I'm sure it was for nothing, but when I made the appointment, I asked that the phone rep mention in the work order that I am requesting a multistream card.

Wish me luck...

I would call back and verify that your request was actually added to your ticket. And make sure the tech knows to bring at least two cards with him. I was told that they are getting away from the S-cards in lieu of the M-cards.

[derspiess]

I would call back and verify that your request was actually added to your ticket. And make sure the tech knows to bring at least two cards with him. I was told that they are getting away from the S-cards in lieu of the M-cards.

I'm reasonably satisfied she added that in there-- she said something like "I don't know what that means, but I'll make sure it they know".

And at this point, I'd rather take my chances on the tech showing up with just one card rather than wait forever in a call queue :rolleyes:

[tiarksd]

I just go a Tivo HD up and running with TWC using cable cards. The experience wasn't too bad thanks to these boards.

When I called to order they had no problem putting the order in, but said I could pick them up and install them myself. After I questioned the rep on this they came and said their tech would have to come and install them. Saved myself a trip across town.

They only support the single stream Scientific Atlantic cards. Install seemed to go ok. Went through the setup again ( i had been playing for a few days via antenna). Seems like the TivoHD needs to be reset/reboot once the cable cards are activated. Kids found out that only one of the cards was fully functional :-( I recommend going to the cable card menu and verifying both cards after install.

Quick call to TWC customer service to reset the cards (rep knew exactly what to do), reset of the Tivo HD and I was fully functional.

Now the bad news: as noted elsewhere TWC puts copy protect on all channels including local so TTG is nonfunctional. I'm off to look up the FCC regs, make the calls, letters etc. :-(

Pricing
$2.50/m/card

$20 install (not sure if thats per card, we'll see when we get the bill)

3/19/08 Update - Looks like they took the copy protect flags off the local channels this weekend. TTG is at least working for the local channels now.

[bitfactory]

In Cincinnati I can get TNT HD, ESPN, ESPN2, A&E HD, History HD, TBS HD on my cable cards. Some used to be SDV but were changed in the last month. I could always get TNT HD and Discovery HD.

These are the ONLY channels in HD you can get with the CCs on a TivoS3 (I take it you can get the locals in HD, too)?

I'm so disgusted by the SA 8300HDC box and their new Navigator software. It's, without a doubt, the worst piece of software I've ever had the misfortune of using.

That said, can someone give me the full list of HD channels you can get with a S3 w/CCs in Cincinnati? I'm either going Tivo or *TV - I've had it with the new software.

Thanks so much.

[squiddohio]

I've had an S3 for a very long time, and a TiVo HD for about 6 months or so in Cincinnati. The cable cards work very well, although sometimes it takes an experienced "dispatcher" to know what signals to send to get the cards working.

I asked about a multistream card, and at that time TW in Cinci said that they do not use them at all.

When you call in, they will think you have a TV set that needs a cable card; I guess that must be the overwhelming majority of CC requests, so be sure to indicate that you need two cards. I had some trouble the first time, but that was one of the first S3s in Cincinnati, but I was fortunate that my installer was very savy, and know which dispatcher to call and which dispatchers were clueless.

In any event, after installation, I have had no problems other than one instance when one instance when my HBO signal was lost (fixed with a phone call to cust service), and one instance when one cable card went dead (fixed with a simple reboot of the S3). This was discovered when I noticed a zero length recording. For some reason, the cable card lost its signal or something. Fortunately, a reboot (or reset) solved the problem. Also, if you have problems, be sure to go into the card test area to see which card is getting which stations, so you can narrow down the problem as much as possible before calling TW service. Sometimes one card might be out, sometimes HBO might be off both cards, etc. In most instances, a reset put things right, so always try that first. These problems are few and far between, and are less frequent and are more easily remedied than the problems with the TW 8300 HD cable box DVR, which I gladly returned to TW when I got my S3.

[bitfactory]

I've had an S3 for a very long time, and a TiVo HD for about 6 months or so in Cincinnati. The cable cards work very well, although sometimes it takes an experienced "dispatcher" to know what signals to send to get the cards working..

Hi Squid - which HD channels don't you get here in Cincy using the S3?

[Midwest User1]

I'm in Waukesha, WI. and I have a TIVO Series 3 with (2) S-cards and a TIVO HD with (2) S-cards and both work.

[squiddohio]

First of all, it's Squidd, with 2 d's, thank you very much.
In Cincy, for a while, TW had a few stations on SDV, such as ESPN2HD, and TNTHD, I think, but a few months ago, all HD stations were available, as far as I know. I get all the network stations, HBO, Showtime, and the "HD Tier" (which has HDNet and that group of misc HD stuff). Right now, everything comes in directly with basic cable cards. I don't know why they went to switched digital for a while, or why they went back, but that's the way it is now.

[bitfactory]

First of all, it's Squidd, with 2 d's, thank you very much.
In Cincy, for a while, TW had a few stations on SDV, such as ESPN2HD, and TNTHD, I think, but a few months ago, all HD stations were available, as far as I know.

Thanks, squidd. 2 weeks ago they told me I wouldn't be able to get ESPN2HD if I switched to Tivo. Maybe they switched back to wait until the SDV 'adapter' is available? Who knows - glad to hear I can switch if I want... Now, the only question is, Series 3 or TivoHD...

[squiddohio]

BITFACTORY:
Whoever at TW told you that ESPN2HD was not available via cable card just didn't get the memo. Or maybe they are going to switch it back, and I didn't get that memo. Anyway, I'm not a big sports fan, so not getting those second tier shows on "The Deuce" in HD did not bother me during that period. (I could still get them on standard def if I wanted to see the show.) And, of course, the great dongle will make that issue go away, as soon as it is released, and then TW can do all the SDV it wants.

As for S3 or HD, I have one of each, and they both perform the same; the S3 has the nicer front display, which shows the title of the shows being recorded, but the HD has the cable card slots on the front, which is handy at installation time. I got the HD through some TiVo offer that allowed me to transfer lifetime service from my old S1 machine (as I did with my S3). I hear there are some other technical differences, and those posts are here for your review, but in day to day watching, it's the same thing on either machine. If there were no price difference, I'd go for the S3 due to its more elegant appearance, but there usually is a price difference, so it's up to you.

[squiddohio]

Isn't the easier solution to use two conventional cable cards?
Why would I want to bother putting pressure on Time Warner (an outfit that does not budge much under any circumstances) or Motorola (see above note) when an easy solution is readily available.
In any event, your your TiVo is not "useless." It already gets a lot of channels, and it can get all of them as soon as you get two conventional cable cards installed like the rest of us.

[derspiess]

First of all, it's Squidd, with 2 d's, thank you very much.
In Cincy, for a while, TW had a few stations on SDV, such as ESPN2HD, and TNTHD, I think, but a few months ago, all HD stations were available, as far as I know. I get all the network stations, HBO, Showtime, and the "HD Tier" (which has HDNet and that group of misc HD stuff). Right now, everything comes in directly with basic cable cards. I don't know why they went to switched digital for a while, or why they went back, but that's the way it is now.

So I won't lose MOJO when I turn in the cable company DVR? Kewl.

[squiddohio]

Not at all. I can tune into MOJO any time I want. Don't let the loss of MOJO stop you from turning in your TW DVR.
I can't think of anything that would stop me from turning that in.
As you know, you will not have the ability to order PayPerView, and you cannot access the "on demand" shows, but I have not missed that at all. I never used "on demand," mostly because I recorded my favorite shows when they aired, and just kept them until I had time (both my machines have enlarged drives, up to about 100 hours of HD each).
Also, with most shows being available online, missing a show is not as big a deal as it used to be.
Enjoy your MOJO.

[derspiess]

Not at all. I can tune into MOJO any time I want. Don't let the loss of MOJO stop you from turning in your TW DVR.
I can't think of anything that would stop me from turning that in.
As you know, you will not have the ability to order PayPerView, and you cannot access the "on demand" shows, but I have not missed that at all. I never used "on demand," mostly because I recorded my favorite shows when they aired, and just kept them until I had time (both my machines have enlarged drives, up to about 100 hours of HD each).
Also, with most shows being available online, missing a show is not as big a deal as it used to be.
Enjoy your MOJO.

Thanks. As long as I don't end up having to return the TivoHD (and I see no reason thus far), the 8300HD is going back. I just assumed I was going to lose a few HD channels based on some older reports.

I won't miss PPV-- the only time I ever use it is football season, and then only for 1 or 2 college football games.

Once I get the cablecard(s) installed tomorrow, I'll re-run some network cable down to the living room to get the new box networked. Then I'll focus on upgrading the hard drive. Not that there aren't other projects around the house I should be doing-- just nothing as fun as this :p

[kenrippy]

i've been having a heck of a time getting an M card for my new tivoHD.
apparently, my area (HB, Westminster, GG) use the scientific atlanta cards. i've been to 3 locations and none of them have the M versions of these.

i had to set an appointment for 9 days from now. what a crock.

am i correct in believing that the tivoHD is only (or most compatible) with the "M" cards?

i didn't realize that this part of the install would be so frustrating.

thanks

[TiVolunteer]

Sometime over the weekend, it looks like TWC Raleigh converted cable card customers over so that we get digital versions of channels 1-99 instead of the analog versions we've been stuck with for the past 18 months. :)

However, at the same time they marked them as CCI 0x02 :mad:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6040731#post6040731

ETA: link

[m_jonis]

Sometime over the weekend, it looks like TWC Raleigh converted cable card customers over so that we get digital versions of channels 1-99 instead of the analog versions we've been stuck with for the past 18 months. :)

However, at the same time they marked them as CCI 0x02 :mad:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6040731#post6040731

ETA: link

Yep, TW is known for doing this. File a complaint with the FCC.

[m_jonis]

Sometime over the weekend, it looks like TWC Raleigh converted cable card customers over so that we get digital versions of channels 1-99 instead of the analog versions we've been stuck with for the past 18 months. :)

However, at the same time they marked them as CCI 0x02 :mad:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6040731#post6040731

ETA: link

although in TW Albany, they've even set the local rebroadcasts as 0x02 EXCEPT the HD locals and the actual analog channels.

But by "forcing" the cable card to only receive the digital locals, they still have those set to 0x02.

[DrWho453]

Sometime over the weekend, it looks like TWC Raleigh converted cable card customers over so that we get digital versions of channels 1-99 instead of the analog versions we've been stuck with for the past 18 months. :)

However, at the same time they marked them as CCI 0x02 :mad:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6040731#post6040731

ETA: link

I just checked channel 50 FSN south and it is set to 0x02. Great so now we have to go through and fight TWC on what they should be setting to copy protection and what they shouldn't be setting to copy protection. I guess we should be happy that they didn't go with 03. Lovely. I love TWC, they have such great love for their customers making sure they do right by the customer. :mad:

[bobrt6676]

TivoHD works equally with either (2) S-cards OR (1) M-card. It would be VERY unusual for TWC to allow a CC pickup. They normally require a truck roll (at your expense of course) to have the CC's "professionally installed" (I use the term loosely!) ;-))

[kenrippy]

TivoHD works equally with either (2) S-cards OR (1) M-card. It would be VERY unusual for TWC to allow a CC pickup. They normally require a truck roll (at your expense of course) to have the CC's "professionally installed" (I use the term loosely!) ;-))


thanks, i was able to convince them that i had detailed instructions on how to install them and when and what numbers to write down, before calling TWC to have them "pair" or whatever they do on their end.

[INARUSH]

Finally got my new S3 installed today in CHARLOTTE, NC (Time Warner Cable - TWC). Looks like most things work, but I whenever I go to some HD channels the cable card ID pops up. Are these channels all switched in Charlotte? I can't even get ESPN. Anyone have a list of what we do get? Any idea if something is wrong with the set up? Any help is appreciated.

FYI: Valerie from TWC was a great help to the technicians. Justin and Kelly were also pretty good technicians (from 1800 connect - TWC contractor). Believe it or not, we had issues setting up the system until the wireless adaptor was plugged into a different USB outlet. Yeah, I have no idea what a USB outlet had to do with the CABLECards connecting, but that was the case. We still don't get ESPN though! I can't deal without the others, but I am in Charlotte and we have some certain attraction to cars going in circles.... in HD!

[cableguy763]

Finally got my new S3 installed today in CHARLOTTE, NC (Time Warner Cable - TWC). Looks like most things work, but I whenever I go to some HD channels the cable card ID pops up. Are these channels all switched in Charlotte? I can't even get ESPN. Anyone have a list of what we do get? Any idea if something is wrong with the set up? Any help is appreciated.

FYI: Valerie from TWC was a great help to the technicians. Justin and Kelly were also pretty good technicians (from 1800 connect - TWC contractor). Believe it or not, we had issues setting up the system until the wireless adaptor was plugged into a different USB outlet. Yeah, I have no idea what a USB outlet had to do with the CABLECards connecting, but that was the case. We still don't get ESPN though! I can't deal without the others, but I am in Charlotte and we have some certain attraction to cars going in circles.... in HD!

When your channels pop up and shows the cable card id, it means your card is not paired. Is charlotte using SA or Moto? If it's SA, check the CP screen and see if it says "Waiting for CP Auth" by the cp status. If so, your card is not paired. If it says "CP Auth Received", you aren't subscribed to the particular package that channel is on. This might not be your fault, but a call to the cable co is needed either way.

[kichigai01]

I just picked up on a M-Cablecard here in the Dallas area and I am not sure what to do.

The installer came out about 5:30 (30 minutes late) and installed the card then called it in. The person on the other end just wasn't getting it and after about 2 hours I told the installer to go home. He was just wasting his time and I will call in to figure it out.

Well, after removing and reinstalling the card and rebooting my TivoHD about 4 times each, I am finally able to get about 80% of the channels. I quickly called customer service and they proceeded to tell me to do the same things I just did 4 times. I am still not getting many of the channels including my HD channels after working on it for over 5 hours.

Should I just let it sit over night to allow the system to "marry" the box and card together?

Any other advice someone might have?

Thanks

[INARUSH]

When your channels pop up and shows the cable card id, it means your card is not paired. Is charlotte using SA or Moto? If it's SA, check the CP screen and see if it says "Waiting for CP Auth" by the cp status. If so, your card is not paired. If it says "CP Auth Received", you aren't subscribed to the particular package that channel is on. This might not be your fault, but a call to the cable co is needed either way.

You were correct. I called TWC last night and they fixed card 2, but CARD 1 still is showing "Waiting for CP Auth". I should have kept them on the phone, but TIVO takes forever to complete the guided setup. I called back today and the guy had no clue what he was doing. I tried to walk him through what I needed (at what point did I become the knowledgable one), but he insisted that he IM the support guys. Anyways, the ECMs are climbing again, but it still is waiting for authorization. How long do I wait before it becomes authorized? Is this instant or does it take time? Thanks again for your help on this!!

[jschuur]

Time for me to chime in from Orange County, CA too:

I finally had it with DirecTV's scrollers announcing the loss of local HD channels, and splurged on 2 refurb Tivo HDs and a DVR extender drive (oh yeah, and 2 LCD TVs too ;) ) and made the switch to Time Warner cablecards. The install went almost perfect, requiring only 2 visits.

During the first visit, the friendly installer brought 2 Motorola mcards, and it looked like everything worked fine, until he left, when I realized I was only getting some of the local channels with HD, but no digital tiers or premium channels. Some research showed that I had the dreaded 'Auth:MP' problem (MP stands for 'missing programming' apparently), which I debugged with the help of the cablecard troubleshooting guide (http://tivosupport2.instancy.com/LaunchContent.aspx?CID=f8f40dc6-5fb6-4ed8-ac41-d8cd0d5c0824) from Tivo.

The 2nd installer came a few days later, and in the end I just got 2 different mcards and after they were paired, all my channels were there right away. I never found out if it was a defective batch of cards, or if the pairing had gone wrong.

Both installers said they'd done TiVo installs before, but in reality, they didn't know about the Tivo HD/Series 3 distinction. In retrospect, it was a mistake to let the first guy take off, thinking the missing channels would magically appear later. The way channel authorization works, that should not take more than a few minutes. My advice would be to insist on re-pairing from scratch, paying close attention to the host/data/serial/cablecard ID numbers they read off, write down and pass along through the phone. Also don't try and set up 2 new Tivos in parallel, perhaps that was were things went wrong for me the 1st time around.

One odd thing did happen. The 2nd installer claimed he had been told that Tivo HDs with a serial number ending in '160' were not supported by mcards due to a known bug. He wanted to use scards, but a quick call to the Tivo cablecard hotline (866 986-8486) with the installer on speaker phone assured him that this was incorrect. Lucky, he didn't persist on using the scards.

I also looked at the initial worksheet and saw that they listed the charges for 4 cablecards, even though I got mcards. Another quick call to Time Warner's customer support line, and they took off the charges for 2 of the 4 cards.

Color me completely satisfied. Finally getting to schedule my shows on tivo.com and networking the 2 units, so I can shuffle recordings between the living room and bed room is just amazing. Plus I'm paying a little less now than I used to pay DTV, for roughly the same programming, and as an added bonus, I'm on a month to month plan with TWC.

[cableguy763]

You were correct. I called TWC last night and they fixed card 2, but CARD 1 still is showing "Waiting for CP Auth". I should have kept them on the phone, but TIVO takes forever to complete the guided setup. I called back today and the guy had no clue what he was doing. I tried to walk him through what I needed (at what point did I become the knowledgable one), but he insisted that he IM the support guys. Anyways, the ECMs are climbing again, but it still is waiting for authorization. How long do I wait before it becomes authorized? Is this instant or does it take time? Thanks again for your help on this!!
An ecm is like a clock. It will continue to increase as long as that tuner is tuned to an encrypted channel, authorized or not. Authorization should take on average about 2 minutes real time. Keep in mind that the screen does not refresh itself, and when checking the cp screen you need to back in and out of it to get an accurate reading. If the billing system is running and backing up hits is another story, but realisticly once you see emm's you should see a CP Authorized status. At most 5 minutes. You DO NOT have to repeat guided setup to get the cards authorized. This will only lengthen the time of an install. What you need is on average 4 to 8 EMM'S. The only way to see this is under the cp screen, like you are obviously doing. This should be able to do over the phone, but sometimes they like to roll a truck to make sure the card isn't bad.

You are halfway there :), be persistent and remember honey catches more flies than other things, so be nice with the person on the other end of the phone.

[derspiess]

Okay, the tech came today, installed one M-card, and left, telling my wife everything was good to go, and left. He wrote down the the CC#, Host ID, and some other code for me.

At any rate, when I got home from work, I repeated the guided setup but am not having much luck getting anything but black screens on a large majority of the channels. So far, the only channels I'm getting are a few PBS, local origination, and shopping channels. Am I supposed to see everything right off the bat, or does it take a while to pair all the channels?

Also, a couple times while trying to find channels I came across a channel (don't remember which, but they weren't the same one) where it tuned in very briefly, then caused my TivoHD to reboot :confused:

I guess I'll let it sit overnight (not that I have much choice at this point), and I probably won't have time to call TW til tomorrow evening.

edit: one last check before I went to bed-- it looks like I'm also getting NBC, CBS, FOX, etc. But still missing a large majority of my channels.

[kichigai01]

Also, a couple times while trying to find channels I came across a channel (don't remember which, but they weren't the same one) where it tuned in very briefly, then caused my TivoHD to reboot :confused:

I guess I'll let it sit overnight (not that I have much choice at this point), and I probably won't have time to call TW til tomorrow evening.

edit: one last check before I went to bed-- it looks like I'm also getting NBC, CBS, FOX, etc. But still missing a large majority of my channels.

I am currently having the same issue in the Dallas area. I called and called and all TWC wants to do over the phone is reboot your stuff if they even know how to troubleshoot a Tivo. I so far have had one visit from a tech with another one scheduled for Thursday for the same issue.

I receive no HD channels expect for the local HDs nor do I receive any upper band digital channels. I was told there was a problem at the server and would hear something from the main office after the first truck roll but I never heard anything. This is the reason for the second truck roll.

Good Luck to you.

UPDATE: It is finally working. After talking to Tivo, they determined the problem was the card was not authorized but activated and paired. We conferenced called TWC and low and behold the Tivo rep was right. TWC clicked a button and the channels popped on.

The one thing I cannot believe is that it took a Tivo rep to get my channels working. This was something the cable company should have noticed right off the bat.

[derspiess]

UPDATE: It is finally working. After talking to Tivo, they determined the problem was the card was not authorized but activated and paired. We conferenced called TWC and low and behold the Tivo rep was right. TWC clicked a button and the channels popped on.

The one thing I cannot believe is that it took a Tivo rep to get my channels working. This was something the cable company should have noticed right off the bat.

That's good to hear, and gives me some hope. When I'm troubleshooting with TWC tonight, I'll make sure to keep the "activated & paired but not authorized" thing in mind. Would not surprise me one bit if that's my issue.

[briangraf]

Thank you very much! That was exactly what I was looking for.

Update: It took a little over a week, but TW responded to my letter of complaint. They say that they will be sending "their best technician" with another CC this coming Tuesday (3/4/2008). Will update again with the results. Thanks again dm-mm.

The install yesterday went very smooth and I now have two working CableCARDs. Thanks for the help. I guess the 3rd time is the charm.

[dm-mm]

Glad to help.

Enjoy your HDTivo

-dm

[INARUSH]

An ecm is like a clock. It will continue to increase as long as that tuner is tuned to an encrypted channel, authorized or not. Authorization should take on average about 2 minutes real time. Keep in mind that the screen does not refresh itself, and when checking the cp screen you need to back in and out of it to get an accurate reading. If the billing system is running and backing up hits is another story, but realisticly once you see emm's you should see a CP Authorized status. At most 5 minutes. You DO NOT have to repeat guided setup to get the cards authorized. This will only lengthen the time of an install. What you need is on average 4 to 8 EMM'S. The only way to see this is under the cp screen, like you are obviously doing. This should be able to do over the phone, but sometimes they like to roll a truck to make sure the card isn't bad.

You are halfway there :), be persistent and remember honey catches more flies than other things, so be nice with the person on the other end of the phone.

Thanks Cableguy :) I'll try again this evening. I have a feeling that one of the cards was manufactured in 2005, which I here may be an issue. Thanks again for all your help. It's my turn to buy the beer!:eek:

[INARUSH]

An ecm is like a clock. It will continue to increase as long as that tuner is tuned to an encrypted channel, authorized or not. Authorization should take on average about 2 minutes real time. Keep in mind that the screen does not refresh itself, and when checking the cp screen you need to back in and out of it to get an accurate reading. If the billing system is running and backing up hits is another story, but realisticly once you see emm's you should see a CP Authorized status. At most 5 minutes. You DO NOT have to repeat guided setup to get the cards authorized. This will only lengthen the time of an install. What you need is on average 4 to 8 EMM'S. The only way to see this is under the cp screen, like you are obviously doing. This should be able to do over the phone, but sometimes they like to roll a truck to make sure the card isn't bad.

You are halfway there :), be persistent and remember honey catches more flies than other things, so be nice with the person on the other end of the phone.


After about an hour and a half, I got the 2nd cable card to authorize. Looks like the cards were both matched to the same Host. After fixing that, 1 card ended up working (2). We can't get card 2 to work though. Since I know this is a 2005 card, perhaps that is the problem. They are send techs to visit again tomorrow with more cards. I am assuming all I will need to do is pop out card 1, pair a new card with that host, and then rerun the guided set up? The only thing I was concerned about is taking card 1 out and leaving card 2 in. Should I start from scratch and get card 1 set up and then put card 2 back in? Any thoughts on this?:confused:

[derspiess]

Great Success :up::up:

Called TWC & explained the situation. The gal put me on hold, then came back to tell me she was sending an activation signal. About 20-30 seconds later, I had college basketball on ESPNHD, in all its glory.

Didn't look through all my channels yet (wife is watching American Idol :rolleyes:) but I did get Cat5 cable run to the living room, so that should take care of that part of the equation. Once I'm certain everything's good, that crappy 8300HD is going back.

Thanks for the help, advice, & support :)

[kichigai01]

Happy to help in some minor way.

[cableguy763]

After about an hour and a half, I got the 2nd cable card to authorize. Looks like the cards were both matched to the same Host. After fixing that, 1 card ended up working (2). We can't get card 2 to work though. Since I know this is a 2005 card, perhaps that is the problem. They are send techs to visit again tomorrow with more cards. I am assuming all I will need to do is pop out card 1, pair a new card with that host, and then rerun the guided set up? The only thing I was concerned about is taking card 1 out and leaving card 2 in. Should I start from scratch and get card 1 set up and then put card 2 back in? Any thoughts on this?:confused:
All the tech will have to do is take out card 1 and call his "people". One thing you should make him check is the host ID's. Those are bound to the card slot. Make sure he has card 1 paired with slot 1. This sounds like they screwed up the first time. Good luck.:)

[brianreed]

After getting my Tivo HD, I went round & round with the business office trying to ask/beg/plead for a cable card. The rep I talked to swore up and down that CCs are no longer available, and they won't work after the Feb 2009 FCC DTV deregulation, blah blah blah.
Don't be fooled Austin customers! I called the support line instead and have a tech coming out this afternoon. Hopefully the provisioning will go smoothly.....

[INARUSH]

All the tech will have to do is take out card 1 and call his "people". One thing you should make him check is the host ID's. Those are bound to the card slot. Make sure he has card 1 paired with slot 1. This sounds like they screwed up the first time. Good luck.:)


Update:
It's working! :) Tech called to say he had only one card with him. I let him know that we were gambling, but lets at least try it. The card was a 2005, so perhaps the year of manufacture does not matter. Here is the short version of the process (wrong ways removed), in case anyone else is having the same situation.


We removed Card 1 (the one that could not authorize).
Have the tech note the card ID on the actual card before you install it. Some TWC reps want this number.
Loaded the card into slot 1 and waited to get the host id and card number
Called TWC and told them all of the information
Requested the card to be paired
Requested an initialization and a refresh of BOTH cards (long explanation as to why)
They did not work until I rebooted the Tivo (unplugged and replugged)


Hope this part helps someone! And a special thanks the Cableguy763!:up::up:

[Lovetroll]

Here in Austin, my wife had a tech come by because of some problems we were having with our digital phone. While he was there she asked for a list of the switched channels and he ended up e-mailing it to us. So, here's an updated list of the switched channels here in Austin:

Switched Basic Simulcast Analogs
2 - KCWM (Hub AB)
5 / 6 - KENS (Hub AB @ 5 and Hubs U, AA, AC, AD @ 6)
6 - CITY (D1/CP)
6 - Local (Hub AB)
7 - Guide
10 - PACT1/Local
11 - PACT2
11 / 12 - KSAT (Hub U @ 11 and Hub AB @ 12)
13 - KAKW
14 - KADF
15 - ME-TV
16 - PACT3 (D1/CP)
17 - ACCESS (D2 Only)
18 / 380 - CSPAN (All but Hubs U, AA, AB, AC, AD)
18 - KPXL (Hub AB)
19 - ACC
20 / 255 - KLRU2
21 - WGN
22 - AISD (D1/CP)
98 - Photo (Hub U)
99 - Infor

Switched Standard Simulcast Analogs
24 / 270 - QVC
25 / 273 - HSN
28 / 213 - WE
29 / 297 - EWTN (Hub AB switched, all others regular digital)
38 / 170 - ION
44 / 355 - News 8 Doppler Radar
44 / 355 - Hill Country Radar (Hubs AB, AG)
64 / 555 - Tuner Classic Movies
70 / 590 - CMT
74 / 219 - Style
77 - TWC77

Switched Digital
102 - Disney West RTE
111 - Boomerang
125 - Nick Toons
217 - Soap (Hub AB Only)
261 - LOGO
274 - TV Superstore
275 - Shop NBC
277 - Gems
278 / 616 - Shop Latino
279 - Celebrity Shopping
281 - Americas Auction Network
284 - Shop at Home
285 - Jewelry TV
295 - The Word Network
348 - News 8 Traffic
358 - News 8 Weather
359 / 609 - News 8 Weather Spanish
363 - Fox Business
408 - New 8 NonStop Sports
436 - ESPNU
527 - FoxReality

Switched Sports Pak
431 - Fox Sports Atlantic
432 - Fox Sports Central
433 - Fox Sports Pacific
434 - Fuel
435 - NBA TV
438 - CSTV
455 - Tennis Channel
460 - Speedvision
471 - Verses
490 - Outdoor Channel

Switched International
601 - CNN Espanol
602 - Canal 24
604 - DocuTVE
606 - CanalSur
609 / 359 - News 8 Weather Spanish
611 - Toon Disney Spanish
612 - Cartoon Spanish
613 - Boomerang Spanish
614 - Sorpresa
616 / 278 - Shop Latino
617 - Fox Sports SW Espanol
618 - ESPN Deportes
626 - TVE International
629 - La Familia
630 - SiTV
632 - Infinito
633 - HTV
634 - Video Rola
636 - MUN 2
637 - MTV Tres
640 - CineLatino
644 - Discovery Espanol
645 - HITN
649 - EWTN Spanish
695 - Deutche Welle TV (Hub AB only)

Switched HBOs
708 - HBO WEST
709 - HBOPLUS WEST
710 - HBOSIG WEST
711 - HBFAMILY WEST
712 - HBCOMEDY WEST
713 - HBOZONE WEST
714 - HBLATINO WEST

Switched Cinemax
723 - CINEMAX WEST
724 - MORMAX WEST
725 - ACTNMAX WEST
726 - THRILMAX WEST

Switched Encore
761 - Encore West

Switched ESPN GamePlan
901 - Sport PPV-1
902 - Sports PPV-2
903 - Sports PPV-3
904 - Sports PPV-4
905 - Sports PPV-5
906 - Sports PPV-6

Switched NBA/MLS
910 - NBA
911 - TEAM1
912 - TEAM2
913 - TEAM3
914 - TEAM4
915 - TEAM5
916 - TEAM6
917 - TEAM7
918 - TEAM8
919 - TEAM9
1649 - TEAM HD

Switched NHL/MLB
960 - Game 1
961 - Game 2
962 - Game 3
963 - Game 4
964 - Game 5
965 - Game 6
966 - Game 7
967 - Game 8
968 - Game 9
969 - Game 10
970 - Game 11
971 - Game 12
972 - Game 13
973 - Game 14
1648 - Game HD

Switched Playboy
940 - Playboy Enhanced

Switched Adult/PPV
941 - Ten
942 - TenBlox
943 - Ten Clips
952 - IND 2

Switched HD Digitals
1611 - HGTV HD
1612 - Food HD
1620 - National Geographic HD
247 / 1626 - History Channel HD
311 / 1630 - CNN HD
351 / 1633 - The Weather Channel HD
364 / 1634 - Fox Business HD
1639 - Fox Sports HD
471 / 1646 - VS / Golf HD
502 / 1653 - TBS HD
566 / 1658 - Lifetime Movie Network HD
241 / 1660 - A&E HD
572 / 1664 - Music HD

Switched Cinemax HD
1675 - Cinemax HD

Switched Movie Channel HD
1680 - The Movie Channel HD

Switched Starz HD
1684 - Starz HD

[cab2]

Thanks for the updated list for austin.

Is anyone else in the TWC Austin area a little bit miffed like I am about the number of channels I can't get with CC? Cableguy is great on this board and we are lucky to have him, but I can't help but feel like complaining to,,,, someone, somewhere, about the number of channels I can't get.

I know the dongle is coming, and I am waiting with baited breath for that day, but it just seems somehow unfair that there are all these channels that cable card customers pay for, but can't get.

Is this list similar to other TWC areas? Seems like a pretty big list to me.

[cableguy763]

Thanks for the updated list for austin.

Is anyone else in the TWC Austin area a little bit miffed like I am about the number of channels I can't get with CC? Cableguy is great on this board and we are lucky to have him, but I can't help but feel like complaining to,,,, someone, somewhere, about the number of channels I can't get.

I know the dongle is coming, and I am waiting with baited breath for that day, but it just seems somehow unfair that there are all these channels that cable card customers pay for, but can't get.

Is this list similar to other TWC areas? Seems like a pretty big list to me.

I wish I had something to do with SDV decisions, but I am doing all I can for you guys.

[Sheils]

Well, I had the Multi-stream card installed last Friday in my TiVo HD box. I had the instrux ready for the tech, but he laughed and said he didn't need them. Being the Time Warner skeptic that I am, I gently and sheepishly placed the paper by his work area anyway. He was true to his word and everything went swimmingly. After a phone call to the office to input the codes, he was out!

The channels were supposed to load up in about an hour and a half. The tech told me that if there was any problem, call and someone would "come over right away" to correct it. So you probably can tell where this is going. The channels did not load after 2 hours, so I had to make the dreaded call to TW. I got the usual offer of an appointment for the next day (couldn't do that - I was leaving for Puerto Rico), but I started raising hell. The woman told me she'd call me back in 10 mins. and let me know if someone could come out that night. No need going into the outcome of that! I called again and was a righteous beeotch, and this guy told me he would DEFINITELY have someone over that night. He might as well had told me that he would be giving me the power to levitate along with my cable service.

Finally, some satisfaction! A dude called me back in about 15 mins. and he got everything going. Seems like the codes were not input correctly in the beginning. So everything's Kool and the Gang.

I am so happy to have TiVo back! I actually got a little giddy during the little video intro where he slides down the yellow slide! I was worried about losing picture quality, but it looks awesome! Lost looked gorgeous last night. And so far I'm getting all of the HD channels, and even a couple more...Keeping fingers crossed that it stays like that for a while!:)

[cab2]

I wish I had something to do with SDV decisions, but I am doing all I can for you guys.

Yup, and it's very much appreciated on this end. TWC owes you a big raise or something. You are balancing out some of their bad mojo with your good juju.