Bad cable cards I believe

[caddyroger]

I have the tivo model s3. I can not get the encore channels on ether card. The channels are on 515 to 525 I beleive. When I enter a channel I get a gray and black pairing screen that has the host id numbers. The signal strength is reading 90. The tivo guild does not list all of the encore channels. Zap2it does show the correct list. Comcast has sent 2 hits to it today plus I unplugged it and run channel guild setup. My Comcast box works ok.
What could be wrong?

[Gavroche]

I have the tivo model s3. I can not get the encore channels on ether card. The channels are on 515 to 525 I beleive. When I enter a channel I get a gray and black pairing screen that has the host id numbers. The signal strength is reading 90. The tivo guild does not list all of the encore channels. Zap2it does show the correct list. Comcast has sent 2 hits to it today plus I unplugged it and run channel guild setup. My Comcast box works ok.
What could be wrong?

They aren't paired correctly. Without correct pairing, you can not receive premium service channels, like encore, but can receive other channels.

I've been through this one myself with Comcast. You call up and explain the problem and they believe the fix is to re-send the activation, which is different from pairing.

If you aren't reading off a bunch of numbers from your Tivo to Comcast when you call, they are NOT doing the pairing. They need the numbers from your cable cards and your cable card screens on your tivo.

Ask to speak to a supervisor, or someone familiar with cable card pairing. That's what I eventually had to do. Most of the regular phone reps don't seem to know about it.

[caddyroger]

They aren't paired correctly. Without correct pairing, you can not receive premium service channels, like encore, but can receive other channels.

I've been through this one myself with Comcast. You call up and explain the problem and they believe the fix is to re-send the activation, which is different from pairing.

If you aren't reading off a bunch of numbers from your Tivo to Comcast when you call, they are NOT doing the pairing. They need the numbers from your cable cards and your cable card screens on your tivo.

Ask to speak to a supervisor, or someone familiar with cable card pairing. That's what I eventually had to do. Most of the regular phone reps don't seem to know about it.

:up:Thanks that was it. I called Comcast and gave them the pairing information. Now I got encore back. :D

[bobj]

I have had by cable guy out to install a multistream cablecard in my hd/xl - unsuccessfully. He gets as far as downloading the channel map (spinning wheel) and then times out every ten minutes. He and the cable company don't know what to do next. I noticed however that my VCT-ID is different than my neighbor's, and his cable cards work - same tivo and cable cards as mine.. Shouldn't the VCT-id be the same - or does it vary by customer? I don't subscribe to the premium channels and my neighbor does - only difference.

Thanks for your help in advance.

[jrm01]

VCT-id is the id of the Virtual Channel Table which provides a list (with frequencies) of the channels that you are authorized to receive. Since your neighbor has premium channels and you don't they will be different.