Cablecards on 2 Month Backorder from Motorola?

[deeremj]

I am located in NJ and have Service Electric Cable, Sparta NJ.

I installed by first S3 in November 2006 and it went great, I had to purchase 2 cablecards from Service Electric ($125 x 2) that they pre-programmed in their system and was able to do a self-install without a hitch. I transferred the lifetime of one of my sony s1 TiVo's

I now have 2 additional S3's ready to be installed (Still sitting in box) to which I want to transfer my other s1 Sony lifetimes and come to find that Service Electric cannot get cable cards from Motorola...At first the CSR basically said that they 'don't have any' and he did not know when they were going to get them.

I have escalated through Service Electric management (supposedly all the way up) and they say that as unacceptable as it is Motorola is telling them that they will not be able to deliver any cablecards Until 'March 2007 at the earliest'
(either old version (fw 4.21) that I am currently using or 'new version' (whatever that means they could not say) - I am not sure if we are talking cc spec 1.0 vs 2.0 or single stream vs multi stream for this 'new version')).

In any case, They have said that If I can purchase a cable card from any other source (presumably v1.0 with fw 4.21) that they will program on their system for me.

So my Questions are:

1) Is it true that these are really not available from the MFG for several months?

2) Where else can I purchase these - there seems to be no channel for these other than direct from Motorola to CATV service providers? Is there a way I can purchase thru TiVo, TCS, Weaknees, PTV Upgrade etc. Service Electric says that they are looking for another channel, but I am unconvinced they will find one.

3) Is anybody else having this type of problem?

4) Is there a direct e-mail and/or Phone number for TiVo.com resolution of this?

5) What are ramifications if I pull one CC from my existing S3 and use in one of the other S3's to at least get some functionality on one of the new units?

Any input would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks! - MJ

[Mike Farrington]

I wonder if the holiday rush of HDTV purchases has caused a shortage of CableCards. The upcoming Super Bowl should also cause a surge in HDTV sales.

5) What are ramifications if I pull one CC from my existing S3 and use in one of the other S3's to at least get some functionality on one of the new units?
You would be reduced to recording one from only one tuner in any S3 that has only one CableCard. Also, you would need to reauthorize the CC you move to another S3.

Have you thought about mixing basic cable with OTA on the new ones until you can get a hold of some CC's? That way you can still make use of all your tuners.

[ah30k]

Moto may be having shortages and then need to decide 1) allocate them to Comcast who has driven their profits from day 1 or 2) allocate them to Service Electric who contributes a revenue figure without even a single comma in it.

Tough choice! Service Electric may have to wait a while.

[hookbill]

A while back a person in my area who was a former comcast, now TW got a two month delay on cable cards as well. They would have been moto. A week later they said they had the cards and installed for him.

I don't think it takes that long, I think the cable company just throws that out there to get you off their back.

[DeathRider]

Maybe Moto is revamping thier cable boxes to need CCs, so the CCs are in short supply, incase they have to follw through on th FCC ruling...just a thought.

[deeremj]

Have you thought about mixing basic cable with OTA on the new ones until you can get a hold of some CC's? That way you can still make use of all your tuners.

Mike,

That is a great idea! I have my original 'non db-35' 750gb drive with an s3 image which I installed in one of the new s3's and am running guided setup now...no OTA available as best I can tell for my area...I will see how it goes...Thanks! - MJ

[deeremj]

Maybe Moto is revamping thier cable boxes to need CCs, so the CCs are in short supply, incase they have to follw through on th FCC ruling...just a thought.


I think you may be onto something here...the cable company (Service Electric) rep stated that Motorola is backlogged due to production of 'new boxes'...I did not consider that those new boxes themselves may need one (or more) each of any cablecards they have available. The new boxes would (probably) be worthless without cablecards to go with them!

-mj

[ah30k]

Moto Hosts (CableCARD ready STBs) will require Multi-Stream CableCARDs so there is no reason that should cause any shortages of Single-Stream (the only ones currently available) cards.

[gwsat]

Moto Hosts (CableCARD ready STBs) will require Multi-Stream CableCARDs so there is no reason that should cause any shortages of Single-Stream (the only ones currently available) cards.
That had occurred to me, too. No cable company is going to furnish a box that can’t handle On Demand and the current, one way, CableCARDs can’t.

[deeremj]

Moto Hosts (CableCARD ready STBs) will require Multi-Stream CableCARDs so there is no reason that should cause any shortages of Single-Stream (the only ones currently available) cards.

My only guess is that the manufacturing capacity is limited and they are using all the production capacity for the cablecard form factor to produce 'new' cards.

I am still unclear on CC 1.0, CC 2.0 and multistream...is there any matrix on compatability with the S3 of any of these (other than the 1.0 non multi-stream we are now using in our s3's)?

Are the 'new' CC's v1.0 unidirectional multi-stream or V2.0 bi-directional multi-stream and will either work with the curent S3's as they stand today or will we need a software upgrade and/or (hopefully not) hardware upgrade for the s3 to use these cards?

One decent reference I have found on the web is the following:

http://arstechnica.com/guides/other/cablecard.ars

-Thanks!

-MJ