FIOS TivoHD and Cable Cards - Oh my

[citizenkahn]

I just made it through the gauntlet with a couple of FIOS cable installers. We all puzzled over the vagaries of CableCards, TIVO and the awesome error messages. The TivoCommunity was extremely helpful. Thanks.

What follows is my experience so that they next poor soul will suffer less. I will explain how we got a tivoHD to work with verizon fios and then rant about it

The Connection Saga
----------------------------------------------
FIOS Setup that worked for me
2 card (it must be two cards)
1 does analog only (1-50)
2 does analog + digital subscription


What we did:
1. inserted cable cards and waited 2 minutes for them to display their pairing information
2. paired them up by recording the CableCard(tm) and Host ID from CableCard pairing screen for each card
NOTE: Verizon calls the CableCard ID a PODID and Tivo calls it "CableCard(tm)" {I assume tm is just trade mark, but who knows...)
The Host id is linked to the slot, so don't go flipping cards between slots or there will be much suffering

3. Verizon authorized the cards and then enabled my digital content
On the conditional access page I get the following for the cards:
cc 1 Auth: MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY
cc 2 Auth: SUBSCRIBED

4. We checked the channels with the "Test Channels" menu and got only grey, so we let TIVO go throuugh its guided-setup again.
5. The greyness continues, so we rebooted
6. Success, the cards can both see the analog channels and one can access the digital.
In the process we saw some errors "161-4" each time Verizon authorized a card.

So, is this working as designed or a problem... I have not idea, nor does the cable guy, which leads us to the Rant

The Dancing Bear Rant
----------------------------------------------
A dancing bear taken from a book on software design which I read. The arguement is that dancing bears are horrid dancers but sort of cool since bears don't dance in the wild. So, software that works tends to work horribly and result in much suffering, but it works. So, since we wouldn't want to see the bear perform swan lake, we probably would like to have software that...sucked less.

So, the ecosystem around cable cards seems like a dancing bear with a broken leg to me.


- neither TIvO, nor the CableCard manufacturer nor the cable provided had a "so you are setting up cable cards guide" leading to a whole host of myths and experiments that needed to chased down.

- We ran into error codes during our install and neither the tech nor google could find a list of these codes or who's codes they are? Are they TIVO codes, are they CableCard codes?

- Techs are sent out into the field without the tools they need to be successful. I'd think that Verizon would invest in a knowledge base for these guys so they can share info (hell, confluence (http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/)is dirt cheap, easy to use and searchable).

- google couldn't find a manual for the CableCard.


The Tivo Community was great (except for a post about how the PODID was the host id, which was incorrect), but shouldn't the vendors expend some effort to make this an easier event?

[bkdtv]

I just made it through the gauntlet with a couple of FIOS cable installers. We all puzzled over the vagaries of CableCards, TIVO and the awesome error messages. The TivoCommunity was extremely helpful. Thanks.

What follows is my experience so that they next poor soul will suffer less. I will explain how we got a tivoHD to work with verizon fios and then rant about it

The Connection Saga
----------------------------------------------
FIOS Setup that worked for me
2 card (it must be two cards)
1 does analog only (1-50)
2 does analog + digital subscription


What we did:
1. inserted cable cards and waited 2 minutes for them to display their pairing information
2. paired them up by recording the CableCard(tm) and Host ID from CableCard pairing screen for each card
NOTE: Verizon calls the CableCard ID a PODID and Tivo calls it "CableCard(tm)" {I assume tm is just trade mark, but who knows...)
The Host id is linked to the slot, so don't go flipping cards between slots or there will be much suffering

3. Verizon authorized the cards and then enabled my digital content
On the conditional access page I get the following for the cards:
cc 1 Auth: MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY
cc 2 Auth: SUBSCRIBED

4. We checked the channels with the "Test Channels" menu and got only grey, so we let TIVO go throuugh its guided-setup again.
5. The greyness continues, so we rebooted
6. Success, the cards can both see the analog channels and one can access the digital.
In the process we saw some errors "161-4" each time Verizon authorized a card.

So, is this working as designed or a problem... I have not idea, nor does the cable guy, which leads us to the RantThe first card is not correctly authorized. The card is not authorized unless it says SUBSCRIBED. This occurs most commonly when the installer sticks both cards in at once, rather than activating one before inserting another, as indicated in the TiVo instructions.

For future reference, there are no analog channels on FiOS when your CableCard is authorized. Digital versions of those channels replace their analog counterparts when your CableCards are authorized.

[rainwater]

The first card is not correctly authorized. The card is not authorized unless it says SUBSCRIBED. This occurs most commonly when the installer sticks both cards in at once, rather than activating one before inserting another, as indicated in the TiVo instructions.

I have been told by several people at TiVo that inserting both cards at once is not an issue. The reason the instructions are as they are written is to make sure the installer correctly authorizes both cards and doesn't assume they only need to auth the first one.

[Generic]

I had cable cards installed into my S3 with Fios earlier this week. It went fairly well with the exception of the 161-4 error. After several attempts, I googled the error and found this on Tivo's website.

For Motorola CableCARDs, many cable providers send an activation signal that causes the DVR to issue error 161-4. This is normal and can be ignored. If you see 161-4 more than once, or if you see any other 161-x signal, it means that the card is damaged and needs to be replaced.

After we ignored the message and continued through it, the CC's worked perfectly.

[psuzebra]

We got MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY during our install too. Re-activating the card fixed the issue.

It takes a few minutes for the CC to recognize all of the channels after it starts decoding. At first when we were testing channels, only about half were working, but once we waited 10 minutes, they were all working.

[cwag17]

I can confirm inserting both cards is fine. My installer slapped both cards in my Tivo HD, recorded the information then told me to pull the plug and restart it and he would be right back. 10 minutes later he was walking out the door.

[aaronwt]

I can confirm inserting both cards is fine. My installer slapped both cards in my Tivo HD, recorded the information then told me to pull the plug and restart it and he would be right back. 10 minutes later he was walking out the door.

But there is no need to pull the plug. You can do one at a time and it works fine. You just redo guided setup after the installer leaves. If the channels come through on the test screen they are fine.
There is no need to reboot the machine during the cable card install process. I've done 5 machines now with Comcast and FIOS and the installed woked the same way with both. Only quicker with FIOS since the info can be entered from their laptop instead of calling the info in like Comcast does.

[cwag17]

Your probably right but I was just doing as instructed. I have read all the horror stories on here about cablecard installs and was just happy mine was a 15 minute ordeal.