my 2nd Comcast cablecard experience 1.5 years later

[JanS]

So, I'm in the process of getting through the setup of my second S3 TiVo. My first TiVo S3 was a "day-one" instance, back sometime in August of of 2006 I think. That time the Comcast tech went for my TV as the place to install the cablecards :(

Well, now some 18 months or so later my impression with Comcast is only slightly better, but I'm still scratching my head as to why this isn't just a smooth thing now? :confused:

You would think with all the experience they have now with this setup, that the average tech would have it down COLD?

:mad:

The tech I had really was trying. He could tell that I was getting frustrated. And I felt like I may have been a little curt at one point. And the last thing I wanna do is piss off the installer :) But sometimes I really wish they would just let me come and pick up the cards from their local office and go home and let me follow the instructions myself and I can get the info off the physical card and also from the pairing screen and then call whatever number they give me and I'll sit on the phone with their people install of the poor tech sitting on the phone. In the end I think that it may be easier to do it that way. Granted if I ran into problems that I couldn't resolve, then yeah do a truck-roll then..

But a few basics that had me frustrated in this 18 month later experience with a cablecard install in person:

1) Going through a complete Guided Setup is NOT required before the pairing screen will come up. But convincing my tech that it wasn't produced uncomfortable moments.

I figured as soon as a cablecard is inserted, then the TiVo will automatically go to the pairing screen?

Maybe I assumed wrong. But in this go-round, I simply setup my newest S3 and plugged in the power cable, moved the HDMI cable from my current S3 to my new S3, ditto for coax cable. I didn't think I would need to bother with setting up the wi-fi dongle, nor the phone-line, nor anything else hardware-wise. Just so long as I had a signal source coming in, plus power and a way to view the output on my screen (HDMI - LCD TV), I thought that that was all that was required :)

But the tech almost was refusing to work on the new S3 without Guided Setup run first. He wasn't clear about what Comcast's expectations were WRT to the state of a TiVo upon their arrival.

I basically felt that Guided Setup is mainly to configure your channel lineup and to start downloading guide info and other various and sundry things like configuring it on the network.. I really didn't think it was necessary for cablecard pairing. Am I wrong?

2) the other thing that really bothered me was he was CONVINCED that I would only need 1 M-card for my S3 and still allow me 2 tuners. I had a hunch from here on TCF that I would indeed have to have _2_ cablecards whether they be M-cards or S-cards. But he wasn't convinced. And I wasn't sure. I should have brought up the FAQ on my laptop and shown him, but I was also hoping that I would be able to get to the TiVo central screen and do the tuner flip to just see if it would work. But without the Guided Setup completely run-thru, I couldn't get to most of the TiVo GUI.

3) All of this FUD was further complicated by the fact that when he tried 2 different m-cards, neither were showing up in the CableCard screen that depicts the 2 cards (not the MMI screen, the one before it if going in through settings->cablecards). Both cards when inserted into the bottom slot never registered on that screen, instead saying "no card" or something to that effect.

So, he kept coming back to the "fact" that I hadn't run through "set-up" yet. I was convinced that it was a hardware problem.

So, I suggested that I would get TiVo support on the phone and see if they could help real-time. Well he went back behind the TiVo and did something and voila the same screen that was up now said that a cablecard was installed in the lower slot!!!!

So, I clicked into it and went to the pairing screen and then he called into dispatch and asked for a card hit. I then went to the "test channels" GUI item and it sat there in the "spinning wheel" screen for a long time. Then it appeared to timeout or at least it got that "good error" 160-4 I think. Don't recall. But I put it back into the same screen, spinning wheel again and after a few more minutes, it finally started loading channels!!!!!

The longer it took, the more I think he was getting frustrated or perhaps it was more a case *I* was getting frustrated, since I was trying to find a way to vocalize that I really wanted him to insert another card in the top slot... or at least plan on that and get dispatch ready for that.

But I bit my lip and prayed.

After the channel loading number was going up I was relieved and next after that seemed done, I went back into test channels and he called out some channel numbers and we went through them and they were all there!!!! Even my HD premiums (SHO, HBO, etc.).

And I was trying to get it all the way through the Guided Setup so I could get to the main TiVo screen and/or live TV so I could check on the status of the 2nd tuner before he left. But it didn't finish in time and off he went. He encouraged me to call his cell directly if I had any issues.

And a few moments after he left Guided Setup was done and I could now check the other tuner and sure enough it wasn't there as I suspected.

So, I called his cell and left a message. He's coming back out tomorrow morning. At least I didn't have to set up another appointment thru a CSR or anything.

But it really befuddles me that the techs don't get clearer or more thorough training on TiVo cablecard installs. On the whole, I have found the TiVo techs to be open and willing to work with me, but I think that while that is all good and well, I do wish that they would be more trained on this.

Is that because TiVos (specifically S3 or THDs) are in the minority of their install calls?

What my hunch is that Comcast as a company doesn't feel that it's worth training better for TiVo cablecard installs since they'd rather have their techs installing Comcast DVRs and not cablecards into TiVos?

Or am I being twisted and biased?

Thanks for letting me vent :) But really I am posting to try to understand why isn't this "easier" by now - some 18 months after the introduction of the S3 TiVo?

Granted this time the M-cards are a new thing. And maybe he was convinced on the need for a single M-card since that's the case for a THD model I so wish I had printed out the "Cablecard install FAQ" from the sticky here, but alas I failed to do so :( But then again, one would hope that most Comcast techs have seen both models by now and plenty of them and would "just know" what is required. I guess I'm dreaming :(

Cheers,
--jans

[aaronwt]

Never let the tech touch the TiVo remote or any cables connected to the TiVo(and also insert the cablecards yourself). Do it yourself and it will go much faster. My experience with Comcast and cablecards 15 months after my first experience went off almost flawlessly. Less than 20 minutes and the tech was out of there for the TiVoHD I re-connected to Comcast with two single stream cards. All the channels came right up within a few minutes of him giving the info over the phone. We even installed both cards one right after another.

Back in 2006 when I had six cards with Comcast, the main problem was getting a tech that knew what they were doing AND also knew the person to contact at the head end.
The tech this time had only done a few cable card TiVos, but he knew exactly who to get a hold of to enter the info. With me navigating the screens I can go through them several times faster than the tech since I'm used to the TiVo which also saves alot of time.
And after the tech leaves, I just redid the guided setup. Definitely no reason for the tech to be doing anything with the guided setup.

[bicker]

In the end, I feel that CableCard is still bad technology. There is some improvement over time, as folks, including the advanced support folks, get better at this, but the essential design of the specification was flawed, IMHO, lacking one essential feature: robustness -- and no amount of experience can remedy that -- nothing can remedy that except replacing the specification (and therefore the devices) entirely.

[taomaster99]

I don't see why we can't just do this ourselves, I had the Comcast tech come out about a month/month and a half ago and all he did was slap the card (m-card) in, called back to dispatch to get the card activated and then we sat through the guide setup and it was done! Going through the guide setup was what took the longest (that and being on hold with dispatch). It's a ripoff to be charged 19 bucks for that but whatever I got it going so I'm happy now.

[Gregor]

My second visit with Comcast went worse in different ways than the first. The tech took it upon himself to decide that there was a signal problem into my house, ignoring the fact that another S3 was working just fine.

It took me over 2 hours to get the guy to quit futzing with the wiring, stop randomly switching cable cards in the slots, and let the cards do their thing once they were installed. The last straw was me pointing out that the numbers he'd written down were different than what was now on the screens because he'd pulled and replaced cards so often.

After I got him to stop a minute and do things correctly, it worked fine. He thought I needed a new outside line at Comcast's expense, so I went along with that, but there was no way I was going to replace all my inside wiring, which he insisted was bad.

[rcr2]

It frustrates me that Comcast *still* hasn't figured out how to train their techs on the right configuration at the home office cablecards should be showing, and how to properly authorize them on an account.

You'd figure they'd make a quick cheat sheet or something. If they would just come pre-authorized and copy the same permissions from the account as the set-top boxes, it wouldn't be such a big deal.

[Scott D]

My tech wanted to unplug the TiVo's to do the card installation. I stopped him before he got too far and showed him the cablecard installation page that came with the TiVo's. Only had one bad card but all was well.

[jlib]

Never let the tech touch the TiVo remote or any cables connected to the TiVo(and also insert the cablecards yourself). Do it yourself and it will go much faster... Amen! One must be proactive in not letting them touch the remote. This requires that one be familiar with the menus in advance and what is to be expected, including which slot is which. Study and memorize the the installation steps. Most techs will defer if you seem like you know what you are doing and are just helping them get out sooner. This is easier to do in a friendly and engaging (but firm) manner. This particular technician might even be worse than a clueless one because of the incomplete knowledge combined with arrogance.