Do the cable cards ever actually work without any issues?

[NCTRNL]

I'm new to the forum but have been a Tivo user for quite a while. I hate the TWC Navigator as much as anyone so that's why I bought a S3. Cable guy is coming this afternoon to do the cable cards but does anyone ever have a seamless transition with this?

Has anyone bought a S3 or THD and had the cable guy install the cable cards, activate them, and then have no problems after that? It seems this process would have to work better than reported here to have been successful at all.

[jakerock]

I had an install and had no problems. I have a TiVo HD with Comcast service in New England.

[mrdazzo7]

I'm new to the forum but have been a Tivo user for quite a while. I hate the TWC Navigator as much as anyone so that's why I bought a S3. Cable guy is coming this afternoon to do the cable cards but does anyone ever have a seamless transition with this?

Has anyone bought a S3 or THD and had the cable guy install the cable cards, activate them, and then have no problems after that? It seems this process would have to work better than reported here to have been successful at all.

I was wondering the exact same thing! I'm sure we only read so much about the negative stuff because that's usually what people discuss, but there seems to be an overwhelming majority of people who have problems vs. those who have success. I'm getting mine installed tomorrow, very anxious to see how it goes.

Post back when you're install is done, let us know how it went.

[dianebrat]

yes,

Malden, MA, got my 2 cards installed last September, never had a single issue, in install or operation.

Diane

[DancnDude]

Mine went in just fine. I was also worried with all the nightmare talk here.

[PSUMattDE]

My FIOS CC installation went off w/o a hitch as well.

Luckily, the pixellation fix firmware was already out and I had it installed.

From start to finish - took about 30 minutes.

[NCTRNL]

Wow...I feel much better. I know that message boards are generally just the things that go wrong...but it's good to hear that there are positive reports out there. I figured there had to be some positive because Tivo would have gone under by now...

[montivette]

Forums are generally filled with posts of people who have problems. Reading a forum on any product prior to purchase will make you think twice about buying the product as it seems everyone has problems with it. The other popular posts are those which state the shortcomings of the product or inadequacies of design.

The most boring threads and the ones with the fewest comments are those which state the person loves the product and have had no issues with it. There will be about 10,000 threads stating problems or dissatisfaction to every 1 thread about how wonderful the product is.

I have never had any serious functionality issues with the Series 3 and the cable card install was effortless, done in a short period of time and in one visit.

[Reinman]

My install was flawless using two Motorola cablecards in about 45 minutes. I left the system alone for a couple of weeks then successfully performed a hard drive upgrade to 1TB. Shortly thereafter I received the Fall update. I've only witnessed pixelization a couple of times and it vanished in the blink of an eye.

I'm very happy with my TiVo HD and FWIW, my cable service is provided by Charter.

[mathewbeall]

I have 6 cablecards (3 Tivo HD's) and it all works good.... never had a problem.

Matt

[acvthree]

My Fios/cablecard/Tivo install went faster and smoother than just about any instal I've ever had.

Al

[jpreston]

I first purchased my S3 when I was a Comcast customer. The "installer" tried 5 or 6 cards and none worked. The installer didn't have a clue and neither did "technical assistance." I was not a big fan of Comcast anyway, so I switched to Verizon Fios. The cards worked perfectly from the get-go. I continue to be impressed with Verizon. Their technical assistance folks actually know what they are talking about.

[bananaman]

I've used 5 CableCards from two different providers (Comcast and RCN), no install or use issues :).

[mrdazzo7]

This thread is extremely encouraging, lol. Sounds like a lot of people are having good success with Verizon. They came to my area but my landlord didn't want to switch, probably because they don't understand the differences/didn't want to deal with the hassle.

Anyone have this kind of success with Cablevision? I know there's a CV-specific thread, but it seems to be focused on the (many) problems people have faced. Would feel better if there were some success stories, haha

[Raj]

I have two CableCARDs from SE Cable in Northwest NJ.

They work fine. No issues setting them up either.

[ThePennyDropped]

Another quick, smooth and easy install from Comcast in New England here, too, done a few months ago.

--Debbie

[Kablemodem]

Most cable card problems are caused by incompetent installers who refuse to follow the directions that come with the TiVo.

[Revolutionary]

My install was smooth and service with Cox Fairfax has been just fine. The installer had done "many, many" S3s before, which gave me only a little comfort when he proceeded to disregard the install procedure that Tivo provides in the box!

But it worked out and both cards were activated with no issues. He was there maybe 15 minutes total. :)

[pkscout]

When I was in Las Vegas Cox installed 2 cards in my TiVo S3 and I didn't have any problems. Well, until a couple of months later when the guys at the head end changed the copy flags on every channel to copy never, but I don't count that as an "install" problem.

[WizarDru]

Smooth sailing with FIOS in suburban Philadelphia with 2 TiVo HDs and a total of 4 cable cards.

[rcr2]

The main problems I have seen have all been with Scientific Atlantic cards.

That being said, The latest software upgrade from TiVo did finally fix the problem of the cards dropping out from being authorized, and I imagine that most installs will go smoothly moving forward.

The biggest remianing problem is still Comcast, especially in the northeast, who just don't supply any cable cards. They are always "out of stock" and balk at giving you one, let alone two.

[old64mb]

Three years ago I had one of the very first cablecards installed in Boston by Comcast - the installer was actually pretty psyched to try it. (Obviously, this wasn't on an S3).

There were some software issues that weren't related to the cablecard that showed up later, but other than that everything went swimmingly.

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

[StStephen]

My install went off without even the slightest problem. I think the majority do.

Steve

[cody_dingo]

TWC in Kansas City, MO here. Install went completely fine. No issues at all. I have a TivoHD and two SA S-cards.

Cheers!

[rockymountaind]

Comcast contractor in Colorado Springs brought 4 cards. 1st card was good; took 5 minutes to initialize & test. Cards 2-4 were bad.

Next morning, he brought 4 more. 1st card we tried worked fine. Took 10 minutes.

So if you don't count the hour we spent on the bad cards, it took 15 minutes total :)

[Okeemike]

Thanks for the info, everyone. This is good to know. My installer is coming tomorrow morning... let's hope he can follow directions.

[Jay M]

The install in my S3 today took about 2 hours. The installer said that one cad usually goes well, but two always take a long time.

While he was on the phone with Time Warner, I was on the laptop here on the forum to make sure he was following proper procedures.

The first card installed in a few minutes. The second didn't work right so he tried a third, it wasn't working. I asked if he was sure the guy on the phone had the right numbers, he said they verified it 3 times.

for what ever reason the install process takes a lot of time. He showed me the progress on the network info page. He left before it finished. Tonight when I am sure it will be done I'll do the Tivo setup.

I am optimistic that everything will be fine tonight.

~Jay

[Teeps]

Most cable card problems are caused by incompetent installers who refuse to follow the directions that come with the TiVo.

Do you have time warner?

If so, which cards did they install?

I get audio and pixelization with SA cards TW in Torrance installed. Some times the digital tier stations disappear for a few hours too. Usually when F1 or other critical (to me) events are on speed.

[Dr_Diablo]

I'm new to the forum but have been a Tivo user for quite a while. I hate the TWC Navigator as much as anyone so that's why I bought a S3. Cable guy is coming this afternoon to do the cable cards but does anyone ever have a seamless transition with this?

Has anyone bought a S3 or THD and had the cable guy install the cable cards, activate them, and then have no problems after that? It seems this process would have to work better than reported here to have been successful at all.


It all depends on the installers ability to have the cards paired, along with the dispatcher doing the pairing correctly...

Thus far that has NOT been the case with my Tivo, two months now...

BH is all too eager to take my money month after month, yet when an issue presents its self they go brain dead...

[sfhub]

4x CableCARDs.
Installation - no issues.
Operation - no issues.

Billing - issues took 4 weeks to solve.

[selfee]

Just had 2 Cablecards installed in a new HD TiVo.

Comcast in the Philly area.

The installer brought 4 cards with him. First one worked fine, second one crapped out, third one worked fine. Absolutely no trouble so far.

We did make a point of calling Comcast 3 times to remind them that (1) we needed cable cards, not a box, and (2) we needed 2 of them.

Very pleased with the new HD service so far.

[wierdo]

My install was slightly troublesome in that two of the four cards the tech tried were bad, followed by an outage preventing him from using his laptop to send the hits to the second card. He called in and it all got taken care of after a little rebalancing (one card had received the hit fine but wasn't authorized for all the channels).

Since then, I haven't had any problems with the CableCARDs, so I consider it a complete success.

[demon]

Personally, the only real problems I've run into were with the *getting* of CableCARDs, not having them work. After my move it took over two months to get them from my current provider; once I actually got them installed, everything's been peachy. Time-Warner (at my previous residence, in the Albany, NY area) gave me a *little* trouble initially, but just telling them the TiVo is on the CableLabs certified devices list took care of that. It definitely does vary.

[Kablemodem]

Do you have time warner?

If so, which cards did they install?

I get audio and pixelization with SA cards TW in Torrance installed. Some times the digital tier stations disappear for a few hours too. Usually when F1 or other critical (to me) events are on speed.


I have Motorola cards. No problems once they were installed properly.

[MScottC]

4x CableCARDs.
Installation - no issues.
Operation - no issues.

Billing - issues took 4 weeks to solve.

I know the feeling. 1 TiVo S3 (ordered 2nd day they were available), Comcast Jersey City. First install almost perfect (no premium channels that I found out a few days later were given to us as a promotion, but otherwise all other channels fine). Second visit a few days later, perfect. Billing issues took 8 months to resolve. They kept charging me for a second outlet, including rental on 2 boxes etc, no matter how many times I pointed them to the comcast.com faq regarding the "no charge for first cablecard, $1.99 for second card on same outlet," and the fact that I had none of their boxes or remotes. Finally got the billing issues resovled a few months ago.

Again, NO complaints technically, it was handled quite well. The billing department, however, sucks.

[quango]

Charter St. Louis (Overland): First installer didn't properly set up the cards; second one came out and did the job. Worked fine, except one day all the cable channels stopped tuning right (channel changes had weird, unpredictable results - when recording stuff on an HD channel, it would tune into the community access channels). I rebooted the TiVo and things worked again, so probably just a transient glitch.

Cox New Orleans: I had issues at the time of installation (first they forgot the cards, then one didn't work), but I think it was because the installers forgot to call in the second cable card--finally they pulled it and put in a replacement card, called in, and it worked fine. No problems since installation.

[steve101]

TivoHD 2 cable cards, Series 3 2 cable cards, Verizon FIOS.
The only issue is the guy was short a card when he arrived
and had to find another installer that had one.
Install went smoothly, installer knew exactly what he was
doing - also said he likes installing on the TivoHD cause it
is so easy and the CC slots are in front.

[George Cifranci]

I'm new to the forum but have been a Tivo user for quite a while. I hate the TWC Navigator as much as anyone so that's why I bought a S3. Cable guy is coming this afternoon to do the cable cards but does anyone ever have a seamless transition with this?

Has anyone bought a S3 or THD and had the cable guy install the cable cards, activate them, and then have no problems after that? It seems this process would have to work better than reported here to have been successful at all.


My story...

I activated my Tivo Series 3 back in January. The cable installer was there for a few hours before they got them working right.

They worked fine (except for 2 outages that happened during 2 weekends where TW screwed up something that affected CableCard customers) until....

Sept 13th. Cable Card 1 went into a "Upgrading Firmware" mode which is a bug with the single-stream Scientific Atlanta CableCards apparently. An installer (which knew very little about Cable Cards) arrived on the 15th and replaced the bad card with a new M-Card (which of course only works in single stream on a S3). I think they forgot to un-pair the original card so that basically cause all sorts of issues and they were there for 2 hours and finally gave up. A guy from TW was supposed to get with me that Monday but something happened the next day (I know the Tivo rebooted during the day by itself for some reason) and by Sunday night it started working.

Until...

this past Thursday (Sept 27th) when Cable Card 1 (the M-Card) lost all encrypted channels (including all the HD channels I only watch). It hasn't worked since. The Tivo rebooted and that Cable Card went into a Firmware Upgrade mode (which from what I understand TW really did issue a Firmware Upgrade for their M-Cards) and then that "Firmware Upgrade in Progress" message went away but I was left with no working encrypted channels. A guy at Time Warner (who has a Series 3 there at the shop) is working with Tivo to figure out why the M-Cards are giving my Tivo S3 trouble. So as of right now I have a Tivo S3 with one tuner that doesn't work and one tuner (with the S-Card) that does. Which means if my Tivo decides to try and record a show on Cable Card 1's tuner I am screwed (I lost about 3 shows last week because of that).

:mad:

UPDATE: A few hours after I posted this I went to play a program I recorded earlier today the Tivo took a bit of time then spontaneously rebooted. After it came back up, I checked the Cable Card 1 tuner and it is now working fine. :confused:

[Charles R]

I had two cards installed in a TiVo HD and the installer tried to activate both at once which the instructions say not to do... which resulted in over an hour of troubleshooting (various calls to other techs).

Then I purchased another TiVo HD and put one of the cards into it to see if I could use both until they installed another card. Well that didn't work (which the installer said would) and the card even became unmarried to the original TiVo HD. So they had to reactivate the cards (I ended up trying both in each unit) which I managed to actually have them do at the office by giving them the numbers (when I dropped off one of their DVRs).

When they came to install the second card in the second unit it read various error codes which he knew nothing about. Searching google the error codes meant the card was bad. So after a mini-debate he agreed to go pick-up another card and come back (he wanted to reschedule for who knows when).

Soon afterwards he returned and said the card can't be bad so we tried it again and it magically started working... maybe we didn't wait long enough beforehand.

No issues at all after installation. Once you get them working they should keep on working!

[Glich]

ok hers my epic

cable guy come and installs cards but they he calls in and girl says there active (i can hear this shes on speaker) He leaves while the cards are firmware updateing but give me his cell (nice guy) upgrade is doen 45 min later i have no pay channels. I call guy back and call tivo. Tivo shows me where in menu it says the cards are not activated. guy shows up call back to dispatch and talks to someone else who says 1st girl forgot to get the host ID. Cards now activated and working but i have minor (1-2 sec every 15 min or so) macroblocking. I check tivos singal str and it says its at 30. (of what i don't know) . Rewire my tivo so it has a home run from outlet signal now 45 and macro blocking only every 30-45 min now. 2 weeks later Tivo relases patch. Now i only see macro blocking about once a week. (and i saw that on my old HD cable box)

[bonnie_raitt]

Bought a HD at Costco Friday. Drove over to Comcast office the same day to pick up a multistream card. Went home, ran guided setup, installed the card, called Comcast and gave them a couple of numbers displayed on the screen and I was working in 10 minutes. From purchase to finish took about 4 hours. I live in Seattle.

[hillerific]

Sorry to be the Negative Nelly but,
I got my TivoHD in the mail last Sat, had the Cablevision guy at my house twice since then to replace the CC decoder! Seems like every morning I have to reboot or call cablevision to report an onscreen error, then they fix it over the phone. Totally bummed cause I love my Tivo. Maybe there's a firmware update that will fix this???

[richsadams]

I'm new to the forum but have been a Tivo user for quite a while. I hate the TWC Navigator as much as anyone so that's why I bought a S3. Cable guy is coming this afternoon to do the cable cards but does anyone ever have a seamless transition with this?

Has anyone bought a S3 or THD and had the cable guy install the cable cards, activate them, and then have no problems after that? It seems this process would have to work better than reported here to have been successful at all.Yep...cable cards installed in our S3 and no problems. Months later we had macroblocking issues but it turned out Comcast messed up something at the "head end" down the block. Once that was sorted out, no problems.

[MickeS]

Mine worked fine.

[CCourtney]

4 CableCARD Installs. 3 totally different pieces of equipment (TV, Sony DVR, TiVo HD.) No Installation issues beyond the length of time for cable operator to activate services on their end (24hrs and a couple phone call for each device), No operational issues.

CCourtney

[mrdazzo7]

I had mine installed in my S3 saturday and so far, everything's working perfectly. I'm absolutely loving it. I love the fact that i can flip through my pay channels without having that crazy delay you get with the I/R blasters. Plus, having Dual HD tuners is fantastic. It's great to finally eb able to enjoy my HDTV with the conviences tivo offers...I can't stand watching Live TV without being able to pause, so I haven't been watching a lot of HD the past year. But now I cant seem to stop.

Hoping the cards work for a while and don't start giving me the problems they seem to give a lot of people. But for now, the experience was pretty painless. Install only took an hour, and most of that was the guy waiting on hold for his dispatchers.

[George Cifranci]

Sorry to be the Negative Nelly but,
I got my TivoHD in the mail last Sat, had the Cablevision guy at my house twice since then to replace the CC decoder! Seems like every morning I have to reboot or call cablevision to report an onscreen error, then they fix it over the phone. Totally bummed cause I love my Tivo. Maybe there's a firmware update that will fix this???

Maybe there is newer firmware for the CableCard they can upgrade to that might fix your issues? What type of CableCard? Motorola? Scientific Atlanta? Is it 2 S-Cards or a single M-Card?

[hillerific]

Thanks for th response... i believe they are Scientific Atlanta.... one Multi, one Single
Gonna look into the firmware.

[geekmedic]

I had an install and had no problems. I have a TiVo HD with Comcast service in New England.
Same here. Comcast New England. No problems after a year of service.

[slimoli]

About 16 cablecards already replaced. Not a Tivo fault, though, since I also have cablecards on 2 Tvs and they also have been replaced. In most cases I got the dreadful "cablecard firmware upgrade" that never ends and locks everything. Scientific Atlanta seems to be much worse than Motorola, as far as I can see on this board. My cable company also sucks and nobody knows anything about cablecards.

My current cablecard situation is actually funny:

On the S3, one CC is authorized and the other has never been. I get a msg "invalid cablecard" if I try to access the CC menu but everything work fine with all channels . After the 9.1 upgrade I got a msg about "copy protection error" but so far no problems with any channel.

The cablecard I have on my Mitsubishi TV has never been authorized , works perfectly and can be used on any TV or the S3. I bet my cable company totally lost control on the cablecards installed. They probably gave up and flipped a switch to allow a free ride to everybody with CC without authorization, although I can only receive the channels I'm paying for.

[Amnesia]

I got my S3 a year ago and had two CCs installed. The installation process took a few hours in order to get both cards to see all channels, but since then everything's been fine...

[miller890]

4 CableCards installed with TimeWarner and no issues. Last week, the M-card install in a S3 was very quick. The tech said that the M-cards from SA at this point don't require a firmware update and recent installs have been successful.

[doodles]

2 cable cards installed on 9/23. Install went smooth, everything working fine. My tip to you: Before the installer enters the house, grab the TiVo remote and don't let go. This way you are in control of the install and there will be no problems.

[jmoak]

BHN, Melbourne Florida, Sientific Atlanta cablecard install in a TivoHD two months ago:

The tech showed up 20 minutes early, followed the tivo included directions, first card went in without a hitch, after 20 minutes he determined that the second card was bad, reached into his back pocket and pulled out another card ( :eek: ) and was up and running in 10 minutes.

Painless install and I've had no problems.
No negative nelly here.
:D

[Powder_Burn]

No problems with Time-Warner Austin issued Scientific Atlanta PKM600's (2005 S-cards). Installation took maybe 20 minutes and everything worked perfectly once I got the cards. In fact, I even found that several channels classified as SDV come in just fine.

However, I did spend ~5 hours corralling the evasive contractor and the TW people who were pointing fingers at each other for problems in getting the cards dispatched. Plan for the runaround ahead of time to pre-empt their maneuvers to escape, do not let them leave, and do not take "no" for an answer. Remember - the installers are paid by the job so they would much rather dump you and move on to plugging in coax at the next appt than deal with your CableCard install. The FCC requires you to be issued cards so hold them to the law and be tenacious to get what you want.

[mwwilliams10]

I have RCN in Chicago. No problem with initial setup on Tivo HD. Swapped Tivos after a few weeks and had no problems when I installed CCs on replacement Tivo.

[Dr_Diablo]

Sorry to be the Negative Nelly but,
I got my TivoHD in the mail last Sat, had the Cablevision guy at my house twice since then to replace the CC decoder! Seems like every morning I have to reboot or call cablevision to report an onscreen error, then they fix it over the phone. Totally bummed cause I love my Tivo. Maybe there's a firmware update that will fix this???

having the same problems with my cards, be it an installer that is not trained to work with a product other than their own to the dispatcher having not paired the cards correctly...

still that cable bill appears monthly... :rolleyes:

[berfy]

2 Motorola cards with TWC in Los Angeles. Working flawlessly for eight months now and counting!

[immagikman]

Verizon FiOS customer here, 6 household cable cards, 0 problems in 4 months use.
I keep my fingers crossed :)

[codymc]

Here's my tale of woe -- which finally ends in success. This is with comcast in atlanta btw.

I had DirecTV -- but due to their lack of support for the DirecTivos (s2 features anyone?) I decided to swap to the TivoHD when they came out with MRV and the other features I'd been waiting on.

I call -- they can come Friday (yay! I'm off on friday!) They know nothing about m-cards at all -- so I tell them I'll need two. They call friday about 30 minutes into the window and say they they are out of cable cards and won't have any till monday. I set up an appointment for the following saturday (next day off).

The guys shows up about 10 minutes after the window. Has two s-cards and two only. One works quickly and easily -- the other is hosed. They don't have any extras -- but while he's on the phone with his boss I hear tell of the rare and sought after pink m-card.

I call to reschedule -- ask them to bring extra cards -- and preferably the pink m-card. They can come monday (hurray!).

Monday rolls around -- tick tock -- nada. Nothing. No calls. Window runs out. I wait 30 more minutes and I call -- "oh we didn't call? we have no cards sorry" I'm boiling at this point. (i have this whole week off --but I have things I need to do) -- they can come Wednesday. Damn this is getting old. Okay -- bring extra cards -- "Yes sir -- I'll have the tech bring 3."

Wednesday. Tech shows up 30 minutes late. Has a single M-card and nothing else. Can't get it to pair. They can't "see anything" on their end. We reboot, he calls in multiple times (several times I had to correct his dyslexic reading of the numbers) no luck. Then he tries to tell me he can't reinstall the other card because it is in "return mode." I make it quite clear that he is not leaving my house until at least the card that was working works again. After about an hour he accomplishes that and leaves. I call comcast again (livid) demanding that they do something to satisfy me -- a person who they lured from DirecTV and who was considering going back. they say they'll have a tech come out between 11-2 the next day.(I try to get an exact time they say that's impossible -- aka we like to stretch out techs to the point of breaking -- aka good customer service cuts into our profit margin) and that i'll be first on the list.

Thursday
I call about an hour into the window to make sure someone is coming -- "yes sir." about an hour later someone calls to say he's running late. I ask does he have a cable card for me? She says she'll call back, and does (shocking!) and that he has a single card -- and let's cross our fingers that it works (she's clued into rage attempting to crawl down the telephone line in search of those responsible for this ineptitude).

Around 4pm the tech calls (shocking again!) and says he's on his way. He sits in front of my house for a good 20 minutes before coming in (reviewing my case?). And gets started. Everything looks good -- we have data and host numbers, we're waiting on activation. Tivo decides it would like to repeat guided setup-- I say no don't do that until we know the card is working -- it takes forever. He lets me back it out of that. I stop paying close attention (I've been trapped in the house since 11a remember) I hear the tivo beep -- he's started guided setup! Annoyed -- but wahtever it's his time. About 40mins later that's done -- i have no encrypted channels. He calls again (and again and again and again). He goes outside to "clean up" my wiring (he's not the sharpest tack -- but at least he's dedicated). Calls again. Reboots the tivo. Calls several more times. goes back outside to redo the wiring again (changing where it splits to go to my cable modem). Calls -- AHA! They have me listed under the wrong head unit (stone mountain vs. vinings -- I live in L5p for you atl peeps). Around 6:30p.m. he leaves and everything is working.

HURRAH. 5 appoints ments -- me very frustrated. I finally have a working 2 tuner Tivo HD.

[wdbrjr]

Believe it or not, I had two CC's installed on FIOS when I was not even home to supervise. As luck would have it, I came home that night to two functional tuners on the TIVO HD. My wife said he was there for awhile and had to call TIVO but he got it working on his own. I consider myself one of the lucky few!

[wackymann]

I've had 2 installations with Comcast in the Boston area - one in the fall of 2006 (S3), and one last week (HD). Both installs took about an hour and I have had no problems with any of them. The S3 has 2 S-cards, and the HD has 1 M-card.

[Ripcord2]

My install with Comcast in Boston went smooth, and I haven't had a single problem since. I guess it's been over 6 months now.

[JStew]

Two cards installed into my S3 by a FIOS tech. Arrived 15 minutes early and was out the door no more than 30 minutes later. Effortless!

[Talsarris]

Unless asked most people don't just pop onto a forum to express their happiness at how smoothly something just happened. Most people on message boards are venting about something. That is why you should always take everything you read on them with a grain or two of salt.

That said, my first install went great, two cards in the S3 with only one issue fixed hit a hit to the card after install.

My second install seemed to have confused my cable company. They didn't seem to understand why I would want a third cable card, or how to add one to the account. Once I got a tech that knew what he was doing rather than just reading the book, all was well.

[Distortedloop]

Uneventful install from Time Warner here in the San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles suburb). Took them ten days to get here when I ordered (no cablecards in stock), but the installer was in and out in under 30 minutes - most of that time was testing the cable line to qualify for a card install.

The installer anticipated problems, and a second installer showed up to help just in case, but it went quickly no problems. He installed the first card, called dispatch with the info off the TiVo screen, did the same with the second card, tested a few channels and left.

Painless.

I am disappointed with the number of channels that show a "you need a TWC cable box to view this channel", but that's for another thread I think.

[jhimmel]

LI, NY - FiOS, easy install of 4 CC's.

[TLD]

Distortedloop. What channels show you the "you need a TWC box" screen. I'm in the valley as well. Our install was a nightmare (tivo HD ) with the installer finally giving up saying we needed to call tivo. But somehow some hours later both card started working. Now channel 417 has the TWC box sreen and 416 has gone grey on both cards. What channels are you having problems with?

[steve101]

Verizon FIOS 1 Series-3 and 1 TivoHD, two separate
installs due to timing of equipment arrival, two different
techs, four single stream cable cards --> No problems.
The installs went quickly, I have had no problems since
(I do have attenuators on both of the Tivo's).

[jjprusk]

When the Series 3 came out, about a year ago, I purchased one and had ComCast install cablecards. It was interesting as they had never saw a Tivo at that point and it took the better part of a full day to get everything working (with many calls back to the home office by the installer). Friday, I purchased a TivoHD and again had ComCast come out for the install. This time it took about 30 minutes and everything was working like a champ! The installer was very familiar with Tivo, knew all of the menus, etc. and got it running promptly. They certainly have gained a great deal of experience over the last year. BTW - my original S3 has had no cablecard problems since they were installed a year ago.

[rhain]

San Diego - Cox Cable. I had my Series 3 installed with two M-Cards and was up and running is less than 30 minutes.

[RNSAMRN]

Can anyone tell me which type of card is working well?
I had an installer come out today. The cards were M-cards from Motorola starting in serial number MA. They could not activate them. The cable company kept getting error messages on both cards. It is possible she may have put the wrong numbers in on one card, but two? I called Tivo and they said they have heard of no problems with cards starting with the serial number MA. They suggested having the cable company come back out, and they would walk them through it step-by-step. I explained to Tivo that it was the person activating the cards over the phone who had a problem, not the installer, but Tivo said that they could assess the problem as the install was being done. I wasn't quite following that, but whatever. So anyhow - which cards are working?
I am in New Jersey and am a Comcast customer.

[slyone]

I have a TivoHD which I had the M-card installed without any issues. The techs were impressed when they saw the install guide provided by Tivo!

[kaitak98]

Had my Time Warner install today in Greater Cincinnati. No real issues. The installer had never put cards in a Tivo before. He got the job at the last minute when the original tech was stuck at another Tivo install. One of the cards wouldn't work so he had to go get another one from the original guy. Once that one updated firmware, it looked like it was working. But, none of the encrypted channels were working. He wanted to dig into signal strength but I suggested a setting issue since the first card was working fine. He sent the Cable Card ID again (all of the communication was done by text message and Nextel two-way) and closed out the work order to get it to work. Took about 90 minutes start to finish.

Funny, the tech said that Cable Card was a big pain for them and they only offer them because the government requires it. "We don't really promote it", he said.

So, hopefully once the SDV dongle comes out I will be able to say goodbye to the HD 8300 forever. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but in no way was it a replacement for Tivo.

[ldhurley]

Comcast

2 cable cards since Aug 06

[Gregor]

Can anyone tell me which type of card is working well?
I had an installer come out today. The cards were M-cards from Motorola starting in serial number MA. They could not activate them. The cable company kept getting error messages on both cards. It is possible she may have put the wrong numbers in on one card, but two? I called Tivo and they said they have heard of no problems with cards starting with the serial number MA. They suggested having the cable company come back out, and they would walk them through it step-by-step. I explained to Tivo that it was the person activating the cards over the phone who had a problem, not the installer, but Tivo said that they could assess the problem as the install was being done. I wasn't quite following that, but whatever. So anyhow - which cards are working?
I am in New Jersey and am a Comcast customer.

I have 2 S3s one working with S-Cards and one working with M-Cards. Motorola cards.

The only problems I've had were getting Comcast to actually do the work, this was right after the S3 launch, and getting the installer to pay attention to what I was telling him instead of just mucking about pulling cards.

[RNSAMRN]

Well after many attempts had someone come out today. Got one Motorola-S CC working. Second wouldn't work. He had no extras and will come back Monday. Wish me luck.

Update:
Got both cards working now. Both Motorola. On starting in serial number MA, the other NG.

[moosedog2000]

short answer: rarely.

[CrispyCritter]

short answer: rarely.longer answer: I would guess everything goes smoothly well over half the time. It's been a long time since a poll on this, but way back then about 1/3 of the installations were smooth. The installers and franchises are much better now - we've trained a substantial number of them:) - and there's more "good" reports.

[BobB]

longer answer: I would guess everything goes smoothly well over half the time. It's been a long time since a poll on this, but way back then about 1/3 of the installations were smooth. The installers and franchises are much better now - we've trained a substantial number of them:) - and there's more "good" reports.

Agreed. As has been mentioned, forums like these are (among other things) where people go for help, or just to vent, when things go wrong. You can't take what you see out here as remotely indicative of the totality of real-world experiences. It's like talk radio - if the callers were truly representative of the general population (and not just the disgruntled fringe), there would be mobs carrying torches rioting in the streets. I don't see that out my window.:p

[moosedog2000]

guy is here as we speak, no luck on getting encrypted channels, on our third card, do i need the card firmware updated?

too late, running the firmware now @ 44% updated, will advise

firmware update complete! I now have all my channels!!!! Yeah! The guy was good and stuck it out. He was ready to blame the Tivo unit and tried the firmware as a last ditch effort. Works great now! Tell your guy to check the firmware if you are not getting the correct channels.