Billster
10-26-2008, 09:03 AM
Got fios installed yesterday. While the tech had never done a cablecard install (they're usually done during the week), he was nice and willing to learn. The install went okay up to the TiVo cablecard install (hat tip to this forum for giving me the info on how to bypass the actiontec router).
I split the signal going into the TV and run a line straight to the TV and another into the TV. So I had 3 cable cards to install. The TV card literally took 1 minute to get up and going. An hour later we're still struggling with the TiVo, activating, waiting, but it wouldn't lock. We then moved on to other things and, just for kicks I tried it again and we had lock. The FSC timed it and it took 21 minutes for the card to fully activate. The second card took a similar amount of time to fully activate. I don't think I read on here that it took that long to fully activate. BTW, had the "cable card expert" and quality control supervisor on with the FSC tech as we were troubleshooting it - and of course we just needed to be patient.
The FSC then told the tech to take the signal down to -17.5db. It was piping in about +6. He used several different attenuators. No pixellation, but the signal strength was really low (in the 70s). I removed all but a single 8 (tried to remove them all but got pixellation). Signal strength is back up to the low-mid 80s with no pixellation.
Have to admit, I was nervous about the install when the tech said he had never done one before, but he was very patient and we worked the problems together. He had to have a supervisor bring out 3 cards (as they were locked up during the weekend) so a big :up: for the extra effort (install took about 5 hours in total).
I split the signal going into the TV and run a line straight to the TV and another into the TV. So I had 3 cable cards to install. The TV card literally took 1 minute to get up and going. An hour later we're still struggling with the TiVo, activating, waiting, but it wouldn't lock. We then moved on to other things and, just for kicks I tried it again and we had lock. The FSC timed it and it took 21 minutes for the card to fully activate. The second card took a similar amount of time to fully activate. I don't think I read on here that it took that long to fully activate. BTW, had the "cable card expert" and quality control supervisor on with the FSC tech as we were troubleshooting it - and of course we just needed to be patient.
The FSC then told the tech to take the signal down to -17.5db. It was piping in about +6. He used several different attenuators. No pixellation, but the signal strength was really low (in the 70s). I removed all but a single 8 (tried to remove them all but got pixellation). Signal strength is back up to the low-mid 80s with no pixellation.
Have to admit, I was nervous about the install when the tech said he had never done one before, but he was very patient and we worked the problems together. He had to have a supervisor bring out 3 cards (as they were locked up during the weekend) so a big :up: for the extra effort (install took about 5 hours in total).