How to tell if I told it I would install CableCards later?

[mattack]

Summary:
How do I tell if I have chosen 'analog' only or 'cablecard later'?

This is actually somewhat of a silly question, but I'm not 100% positive of the answer.

Apparently the "cable digital switch" finally happened for me last night. At least as of this morning, there were only a couple of analog stations left above 38 (ESPN). Happily, Comedy Central (62) and History (63) were still there in analog.. I presume they'll eventually go too, since the line I've been hearing before was that everything above 35 will be gone.

ANYWAY. I am probably going to get a CableCard for at least one of my Tivos (TivoHD since it'll take ONE M card).

But I'm not positive if I chose the "will install cablecards later" option. I *have* played around with clear QAM channels (though they actually show up only on my TivoHD nowadays, not the S3).

In case I have to actually have the cable guy come, I want to have done the guided setup beforehand.

On S1, it shows something like "cable with no box" or "cable with box".. but I can't find anything that seems to be analogous. The CableCARD menu items do appear (and obviously show they're empty)... and the channel guide only shows analog channels (plus the clear QAMs I manually added).

I'm not sure if that means it thinks I'm only analog, or if it hides the other channels until I put a CableCARD in.

Thanks for clearing my ignorance on the issue. (I wish somewhere it would say something like "Analog with CableCARDS later", or "Over the Air Only", etc..)

[twhiting9275]

As far as the analog switch:
If your box is connected to cable, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Don't buy into the scams that say you do.

You WILL need to re-scan your channels through the box, though. Once you do this, you should be fine.

As far as your initial question:
If you were receiving signal without a cablecard, you told it you would install it later, it's that simple. Otherwise, you would get nothing at all.

When they come out with the card, they'll install it, and Tivo will go through it's routine. It really is fairly simple.

[mattack]

As far as the analog switch:
If your box is connected to cable, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Don't buy into the scams that say you do.

You WILL need to re-scan your channels through the box, though. Once you do this, you should be fine.

As far as your initial question:
If you were receiving signal without a cablecard, you told it you would install it later, it's that simple. Otherwise, you would get nothing at all.

When they come out with the card, they'll install it, and Tivo will go through it's routine. It really is fairly simple.

I'm talking about a Tivo HD, and obviously it does NOT control a box.

The digital CABLE SWITCH has already happened for me, as I said. I LOST channels 38-61 (at least) that I previously got.

I am trying to figure out if I need to re-run Guided Setup or not. Since I can play with clear QAM channels, I *think* I must have told it 'cablecards later'. But I want to find some proof of that before spending a long time redoing guided setup.

If I need a cable guy to come out, I will need to have redone guided setup (if necessary) BEFORE he comes.

[twhiting9275]

re-scan your channels, you should be setup.
You need to be connected to cable somehow. If not through a box, then you have it connected through coax.

Once you rescan your channels, you should be good.

[jrm01]

Scanning for the channels has nothing to do with cablecards. In fact, this option is not even available once the cablecards are installed.

When you initially setup the THD you had two options for cablecards (1) Yes or (2) No. Obviously you chose NO and got a message indicating that they could be added later.

When you get the card and insert it you should immediately see the cablecard decoder screen. If for some reason it doesn't come up you can go into the Cablecard screens via the Settings menu and have them configured.

Good luck.

[bkdtv]

When you get the card and insert it you should immediately see the cablecard decoder screen. If for some reason it doesn't come up you can go into the Cablecard screens via the Settings menu and have them configured.Note you may not see the CableCard screen until 60-120 seconds after the card is inserted.

[lessd]

I'm talking about a Tivo HD, and obviously it does NOT control a box.

The digital CABLE SWITCH has already happened for me, as I said. I LOST channels 38-61 (at least) that I previously got.

I am trying to figure out if I need to re-run Guided Setup or not. Since I can play with clear QAM channels, I *think* I must have told it 'cablecards later'. But I want to find some proof of that before spending a long time redoing guided setup.

If I need a cable guy to come out, I will need to have redone guided setup (if necessary) BEFORE he comes.

You can't get guide date for clear QAM HD channels, you can set up a manual record for these channels, a pain as your now playing list will have no information on what you recorded.
After or when you install the cable card(s) you run the guided setup again
Until you install the CC you will only get guide data/and be able auto record the analog channels no matter what you do.

[mattack]

Yeah, thanks.. It actually did require me to rerun guided setup. So I guess that was actually so that it would get the guide data for the new channels.

Unfortunately, even when I remove the splitter (I currently want/have 4 things to get a video signal), I don't get all of the channels on that Tivo. With the splitter, I'm not even getting most of the local channels (in their digital versions of course). Since we're now in TV rerun season, and I have tons of stuff recorded already, I'm likely to let it be for a few weeks until I take another vacation day..

Basically, even though the reason I got the S3 & TivoHD was because of this and the OTA transition, it's really annoying that I'm getting less and paying more (due to having to pay for cablecards). *Eventually* I'll get more (wow, there is a TON of channels).. which will likely make me put a 1+TB drive in my TivoHD too.

I've thought of starting a different thread for this, but I'll ask here...

Will the channels ever go away for analog-only setups?

Unfortunately, upon thinking about it more, I think *not*.. Since I don't think as far as the Tivo guide data knows, it doesn't know the difference between the 'old' analog MTV (43) and the 'new' digital MTV which is automagically mapped to channel 43.

So basically, I have to turn off most of the channels on my S1 and my S3 (which is currently only getting analog) so they quit trying to record off of nonexistant stations.
I wish the guide data would update, but because of my above theory, I guess it never will.

Any more ideas on that, especially counter-examples, would be great.