Cable Card Vs Cogeco In Canada

[JACKASTOR]

Hey all I had a David vs Goliath moment with Cogeco here in Canada. Thats right I had a battle took 3 days 7 hangups from various tech gurus who hung up when I requested to speak to a supervisor. Long story short I have my Cable card working with my tivo premiere on Cogeco getting all the channles I paid for! Sor far as I know I am the first Canadian to get it done.

Ok so heres how it went.

I called was told they dont activate cable cards. I asked why. They replied they dont no ifs or buts about it. I asked to speak to a supervisor, he replied why do you need to speak to a supervisor. I asked what part of "may i speak to a supervisor" did he misunderstand? He hung up on me. Any way 1 more call went the same way. Third call I explained to customer service what i wanted to do. She put me on hold found a supervisor who after some discussion said we can try it and see what happens. He advised me to make sure that the card was motrola. make sure the serial number begins with m or gi and that the ua number was 13 digits. I located this unit on Ebay for about 13.99 low end of the cost but as high as about 20 dollars. (Motorola M-Card MediaCipher Multi Stream Cable Card) ok the card cost me about 6 dollars to ship. Took about 10 days counting weekends.. no duty as it was under 50 dollars. Card arrived I mediately called Cogeco... to my dismay had to to argue all over again several hang ups later one mine.. and a car ride later..(had to let the steam off) Called again insisted i speak to a supervisor.. Finally he agreed to try. He passed me over to the activations a lady named Jenn... Very helpfull provided the serial number begining with m and the ua numbers. Oh yes very important i was reading on the net how the Motorola M-Card MediaCipher Multi Stream Cable Card was designed to mimic the dct2000 settop box. She entered the information into the system. She flipped the swtiches which is to say she set the provisioning for the dct2000 and activated all my channels. I couldnt find any channels.. So we rebooted the machine. While we waiting on the reboot.. I conferenced our call to tivo for some expert advice. Machine rebooted all channels were there! Tivo dude had us go to the cabel card menus check some settings... seems like we cant pair the card to the tivo not sure if its going to make a difference. but it might on channels like hbo which i dont get. ill look into that later.
Seems like cogeco cause they dont strictly support (well actually they dont ) cable card may not be able to pair it any way. But it seems to be working 100 perecent get all my hd and such channels as we pay for.. the nice thing is i can filter out all channels i dont want or get, and the guide displays both OTA and Cable channels in the guide flawlessly. Records on all the channels and does so flawlessly. So I suggest any canadians who want the premiere to go for it! Order off ebay and get a cable card.. Just make sure your cable card is an m-card and motorolla manufacture..

regards

Jack Astor

[matt@thehickmans]

Congrats!

[JACKASTOR]

Has anyone else in Canada attempted the cablecard stratagem?

[alexhaj]

Hi I'm in St Catharines and read your info about setting up a cablecard with cogeco. I purchased the moto M card and have activated it properly and am getting most of my channels including the HD ones.

Those channels I don't get like nat geo HD or al jazeera (182) are most likely SDV (switch digital). For those channels your digital cable tuner (dct) must have two way communication in order to tell cogeco that we want a particular channel sent to us.

Switching all of cogeco's channels to SDV would save them tremendous bandwidth and I beleive this will be accomplished before the end of the year.

There is a solution but it would require cogeco sending us Motorola MTR700's Tuning Adapters, which would act as the upstream half and tell cogeco which channels we would like to tune into. The MTR700 works with Tivo and Ceton DVRs however you must have an MTR700 with firmware above 1.32 if not ideally, the newest 1.37.

If you have a contact in Cogeco, would you be able to find out when they are switching to SDV and if they can provide us MTR700s. I'm sure if we bug them enough they might follow Rogers (as they provide MTR700's).

I can be reached at alexhaj@gmail.com

[Kryspy]

Ok,

So I currently have Cogeco for internet and phone and Shaw Direct for TV and have been contemplating a switch to Cogeco Cable TV.

I want to make sure I get this correct. If and when Cogeco changes over to SDV does that mean that cablecard with a TIVO will cease to receive channels without this MTR700 tuning adapter?

I would gladly switch from Shaw Direct to Cogeco + TIVO if possible. Not sure Cogeco would want to lose a triple play customer over activating a cablecard.

Kryspy

[golf25radioman@e]

I cannot seem to get a CableCARD to work for any length of time on my Premier XL. After a while they start throwing CableCARD error 161-11 (I think that's the number). Sometimes simply tuning to a lower broadcast channel will get by the error and have no problems but other times it takes a restart to watch TV uninterrupted. This is the second card. Is the CableCARD just a POS or am I just having a streak of bad luck with them?

Tom

[JACKASTOR]

Ok,

So I currently have Cogeco for internet and phone and Shaw Direct for TV and have been contemplating a switch to Cogeco Cable TV.

I want to make sure I get this correct. If and when Cogeco changes over to SDV does that mean that cablecard with a TIVO will cease to receive channels without this MTR700 tuning adapter?

I would gladly switch from Shaw Direct to Cogeco + TIVO if possible. Not sure Cogeco would want to lose a triple play customer over activating a cablecard.

Kryspy

it wont stop working you still need a cable for sDV from what i understand. And i dont think tis anything we currently have to worry about as Canadian Cable providers are decades in the past. that said Who really knows.
AS far as cable card goes mine works flawlessly. No issues currently.
I think the SDV if it comes will strictly be for premium on demand content.

[JACKASTOR]

I cannot seem to get a CableCARD to work for any length of time on my Premier XL. After a while they start throwing CableCARD error 161-11 (I think that's the number). Sometimes simply tuning to a lower broadcast channel will get by the error and have no problems but other times it takes a restart to watch TV uninterrupted. This is the second card. Is the CableCARD just a POS or am I just having a streak of bad luck with them?

Tom

I think you may have to call Tivo for that. But it sounds like from what i have seen on this forum and improper pairing but thats just a guess

[Kryspy]

JACKASTOR,

I was just going by what alexhaj had stated that National Geographics HD didn't work and was a SDV channel.

Kryspy

[JACKASTOR]

JACKASTOR,

I was just going by what alexhaj had stated that National Geographics HD didn't work and was a SDV channel.

Kryspy

I am preety certain that his issue is just needing to have the channels activated by cogeco. I had my card activated and if they dont authorize HD you dont get it. The card is recognized on their system as a STB box one way (motorolla 2000). One way because the Host Tivo does not support 2 way comunications. So once I had the the card activated I waited with the rep while we went through all the channles one by one to ensure that the channels i had were activated. Some were and some were not. Once it was done It works great. That said I am not an expert by far and my experiance doest not make what I say fact, it is just my observations on things....

At any rate thats what discussion is about.


regards

jack

[Kryspy]

Not enough posts yet to respond to your PM.... Thanks Jack

Kryspy

[kurtcarter]

Hello Gentlemen,

Thank you, Jack Astor, and others for the fine work you've done on something I've been trying to get done for a while, that is use Tivo Premiere with Cogeco cable. I'm in Kingston and want to use TIVO but I stopped because Cogeco told me that they would not activate under any circumstances. I'm a bit nervous about trying it if it's not going to work so is there any way we can find out how many others are out there like you Jack in different areas so I can be sure its going to work?

I'm not sure where you're located so that would help to know a lot. I'm willing to go ahead with it but I don't want to spend the money on Tivo and not have it work.

Thanks,
Kurt

[alexhaj]

Yes it took a bit on convincing to get Cogeco to activate it initially. When you give them the serial number for the Motorol M-cipher card, as soon as they hear MA they say its not valid. All Moto M cards start with MA. I had to speak with a manager who kept going back to the engineers and kept telling me it would not work. Finally I got him to "just try it" and sure enough it worked.

The next day when I tried to activate my brother's card it was much easier since I just referred them to my account so that they could see that a box with an M followed by an A was working on their system.

The only way to future proof this is to get cogeco on the tuning adapter bandwagon.

Best of luck to all.

[Mangotangoe]

Two calls later and no luck getting Cogeco to activate my setup.
Not sure what to do...

[JACKASTOR]

Two calls later and no luck getting Cogeco to activate my setup.
Not sure what to do...

First off what cable card did you buy? IF you bought any cable card other then a Motorolla card you will not get it to work. Second you dont need to tell them its a tivo they dont need to know, All you need to do is tell them the box is a dct 2000. You give them the UA number. They may tell you its not the right number but insist they try, in the long run it will prove them right or wrong. No harm in trying as it does not impact the system any way. You can not do VOD as its not compatible. No loss there as its a money pit for you and a money maker for them. Once the unit is activated your good to go. It took seven calls. Insist on speaking to a supervisor. When they dont transfer you ask them did you understand me when I asked to speak to a supervisor. When they say yes, ask them if you understood my, could you please tell me why I am still speaking to you if you understood my request? That usually shuts them up really quick. And bottom line trying to activate your equipment is no harm to the system bottom line is it will work or wont. I do know that the only cable card that will work is motorolla as they allready have the system in place.


here is a link to the card that definatly will work

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Motorola-M-Card-MediaCipher-Multi-Stream-Cable-Card-/370343611072?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563a330ac0

Good luck be presistant. Like I said no harm no foul If you look up this card on the net it will tell you that it is compatible as a dct2000 stb motorolla.. its esentially in all their machines any way. Thats why that slot is on the back of all the boxes built by motorolla.

good luck

[Mangotangoe]

OK... two more calls into Cogeco.
Yes, using a moto M card
Told them that I wanted to activate a dct2000 box, finally was told that the Motorola S/N of MA.... is probably not valid and it should read M4.... He left me on hold to try, I assumed I would then have to ask him to at least try the MA number. However, he comes back says system accepted both the M4 serial and my UA number. All my channels except my HD are now working.
Guess I need to call back again and try to convince them to turn on these HD channels on this dct2000 SD box ???
Getting closer. Thanks for the help...

[JACKASTOR]

OK... two more calls into Cogeco.
Yes, using a moto M card
Told them that I wanted to activate a dct2000 box, finally was told that the Motorola S/N of MA.... is probably not valid and it should read M4.... He left me on hold to try, I assumed I would then have to ask him to at least try the MA number. However, he comes back says system accepted both the M4 serial and my UA number. All my channels except my HD are now working.
Guess I need to call back again and try to convince them to turn on these HD channels on this dct2000 SD box ???
Getting closer. Thanks for the help...

The Hd channels are not active because he did not turn them on.
Calll them back they will turn them on. Also tell the girl it is a oneway communication system, They set them up slightly dif. The tivo is not able to communicate back with the cable head hence why we dont have VOD on tivo. Once you call them back they will throw the switch it takes like 30 secs to do. :P
Good luck, Its like pulling teeth with these guys not because they dont want to be helpfull but because they are ignorant of their technology. Oh yeah if you ever replace your tivo box, because of an upgrade or hardware failure the card is not paired to tivo so you can swap it accross to any cable card device from the the comptur to the new 6 tuner tivo... but upgrading to the new tivo would result in you loosing the over the air digital capabilities we have:
Once you get your channels sorted ask them to tell you the channels you are able to recieve and select the ones you can and deselect the ones you dont. Thats the nicest thing about tivo no clutter on the guide for channels you dont want to see or get... I for instnace have my lower def deslected so i get my hdd listed instead. only the channels that are duped hd and sd.



good luck

jack

[JACKASTOR]

I cannot seem to get a CableCARD to work for any length of time on my Premier XL. After a while they start throwing CableCARD error 161-11 (I think that's the number). Sometimes simply tuning to a lower broadcast channel will get by the error and have no problems but other times it takes a restart to watch TV uninterrupted. This is the second card. Is the CableCARD just a POS or am I just having a streak of bad luck with them?

Tom

Dont know but I suspect that it could be improper pairing on your end. In canada they dont pair the card so its not issue here.

[Mangotangoe]

Just sat down to watch tv on the Tivo and all my HD channels are now active.
Need to check each one, however at first glance everything seems to be working perfectly.
This is fantastic... I've so missed using a Tivo.
Now to get an antenna setup for OTA :)

[Worf]

Lucky.

Shaw has explicitly denied CableCARD support, and refuses to activate any non-Shaw-purchased equipment. (I think this is true for Rogers as well).

It would be nice they would get a clue and let us use customer equipment. But our CRTC is unlike the FCC and is basically in the pockets of big telecoms.

Oh yeah. Shaw is getting rid of everything but basic cable on analog.

[JACKASTOR]

Lucky.

Shaw has explicitly denied CableCARD support, and refuses to activate any non-Shaw-purchased equipment. (I think this is true for Rogers as well).

It would be nice they would get a clue and let us use customer equipment. But our CRTC is unlike the FCC and is basically in the pockets of big telecoms.

Oh yeah. Shaw is getting rid of everything but basic cable on analog.

Shaw will activate your cable card. Again it has to be a motorola media chipher card. You just have to be presistant. Also they dont need to know its a tivo.

[Mangotangoe]

Well, upon further checking I am not receiving all of my subscribed HD channels. Call into my provider and they are adamant that I am not receiving any HD channels and will not reactivate the missing channels. All they see/know is that I have a dct2000 receiver.
I've been reading that the serial number is irrelevant to the successful activation, thus the M4 serial input for my receiver works. Could I simply insist that the receiver is not a dct2000 but a dct6400. Think they could tell the difference?

[Worf]

So what do these cards look like? If I can get digital on my S3, I'd be very interested... but I have no idea what to even look for on eBay.

I'd probably go with one (the S3s can't handle M-Stream card, but I think they can use it as a single stream).

Edit: Model numbers would be good too - I honestly have no idea what they look like, and I know eBay descriptions can be misleading (whether accidental or on purpose...).

[JACKASTOR]

So what do these cards look like? If I can get digital on my S3, I'd be very interested... but I have no idea what to even look for on eBay.

I'd probably go with one (the S3s can't handle M-Stream card, but I think they can use it as a single stream).

Edit: Model numbers would be good too - I honestly have no idea what they look like, and I know eBay descriptions can be misleading (whether accidental or on purpose...).

You will need two of them to get the dual channel ability

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Motorola-M-Ca...item563a330ac0


thats the link to them on ebay.. BTW discuss shipping with them your only looking at under 3.00 dollars united states postal cost. for two cards. My cards came in a bubble envelope cleared customs... they were only 34 dollars in total cost. Dont know if you have to pay any brokerage fees but thinking not as they were in an envelope.

Good luck.
jack

[JACKASTOR]

Well, upon further checking I am not receiving all of my subscribed HD channels. Call into my provider and they are adamant that I am not receiving any HD channels and will not reactivate the missing channels. All they see/know is that I have a dct2000 receiver.
I've been reading that the serial number is irrelevant to the successful activation, thus the M4 serial input for my receiver works. Could I simply insist that the receiver is not a dct2000 but a dct6400. Think they could tell the difference?

hope you called cogeco. If you did they will turn on the the channels you get. They will do it. It doesnt matter what the box is . They can turn on all the channels you get, if the box can handle the hidef then they will show. THey have to authorize the channels for the box. Once they do that it will be fine.

good luck

jack

[Worf]

You will need two of them to get the dual channel ability

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Motorola-M-Ca...item563a330ac0


thats the link to them on ebay.. BTW discuss shipping with them your only looking at under 3.00 dollars united states postal cost. for two cards. My cards came in a bubble envelope cleared customs... they were only 34 dollars in total cost. Dont know if you have to pay any brokerage fees but thinking not as they were in an envelope.

Good luck.
jack

Great, thanks!

In general, items under $20 don't get charged taxes, and if it comes through the mail, Canada Post charges $5 or $8 (express mail), making it one of the cheapest around. Though, unlike UPS or FedEx, Canada Post doesn't always charge taxes - sometimes you're lucky, sometimes not. Depends on the Customs agent, I guess. (FedEx, UPS have some lackey filling in some form and submitting it to Customs, so they're not obligated to pay taxes).

The cheaper the item, the less likely taxes will be charged (paperwork, you know?).

I'll probably get two and activate one - Shaw charges per "box" so a single stream tuner is at a slight disadvantage.

Edit: Do you have the seller's name? The link points to a removed auction.

[Worf]

Bump - anyone got the fixed link?

[Mangotangoe]

The M-Card I purchased was from Ebay Member red17273, $20 shipped.
However, he/she doesn't have any listed right now.
A quick search for Motorola M-Card comes up with many others available.

[Worf]

Great, thanks.

Is there a model number or something I should look for?

[Mangotangoe]

Did you find a M card yet? Keep this thread updated with your activation experience with the cable co.

[Worf]

Still hunting for an M-Card at the moment. Work has been a bit hectic with an office move which means receiving packages there is difficult, but hopefully I'll start searching soon once things settle down again.

The other issue is Shaw's customer support line currently has a wait time of roughly... FOUR+ hours. (!!!)

[annavogelgm]

So I currently accept Cogeco for internet and buzz and Shaw Direct for TV and accept been advertent a about-face to Cogeco Cable TV.

I wish to accomplish abiding I get this correct. If and if Cogeco changes over to SDV does that beggarly that cablecard with a TIVO will cease to accept channels after this MTR700 affability adapter?

I would acquiescently about-face from Shaw Direct to Cogeco + TIVO if possible. Not abiding Cogeco would wish to lose a amateur play chump over activating a cablecard.

[chudsmith]

Hey guys I have a TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder, and I’m curious if the Motorola M-Card will work with this unit.
I wasn’t able to find who the manufacturer of my model was.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[DBC944]

Jack I had the original series 1 Tivo and then a SAT T60 Directv Tivo. They recorded with the 'flags' in the overscan area rather than the stupid boxes we have here that just use time. So if a program ran long or the start was delayed Tivo read the fags and recorded the entire show correctly. In your Cogeco system are you still limited by the dumb Cogeco system?

I am really interested in getting Tivo again and I'm in Burlington on Cogeco.

Bill

[JACKASTOR]

Hey guys I have a TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder, and I’m curious if the Motorola M-Card will work with this unit.
I wasn’t able to find who the manufacturer of my model was.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Absolutly it will work, its compatible as dct 2000 box.
You can actually tell them its a high def box but pick one of the motorolla hd ones ..

ok peace

[JACKASTOR]

Jack I had the original series 1 Tivo and then a SAT T60 Directv Tivo. They recorded with the 'flags' in the overscan area rather than the stupid boxes we have here that just use time. So if a program ran long or the start was delayed Tivo read the fags and recorded the entire show correctly. In your Cogeco system are you still limited by the dumb Cogeco system?

I am really interested in getting Tivo again and I'm in Burlington on Cogeco.

Bill

Dont know if it has or not. I think its the same old same old cogeco.

[shparson]

So Cogeco has made the jump to Switched Digital Video in my area so I am wondering if it is worth the while making the jump to TIVO now?

What would happen if I got a "Tuning Adapter" and connected it to the TIVO. Does Cogeco need to know? Is there anyway they could make it work?

I am desperate to make this work as I LOVE TIVO and would do anything to get HD TIVO working here in Canada.

[JACKASTOR]

So Cogeco has made the jump to Switched Digital Video in my area so I am wondering if it is worth the while making the jump to TIVO now?

What would happen if I got a "Tuning Adapter" and connected it to the TIVO. Does Cogeco need to know? Is there anyway they could make it work?

I am desperate to make this work as I LOVE TIVO and would do anything to get HD TIVO working here in Canada.

Not sure but the channels that are there using svd are not that much to make a dif, although I do not get amc 189 because of it.

I dont know how the svd works or if it needs to be activated.

[fraisa]

Okay i am getting the clear qam channels in on my tivo but they have no info on the guide
was told i need a cable card but i have cogeco and they said they dont support cards
I have no problem fighting to get a card activated
If i get a card what card do i need?
and what package should i sub too?
do you get all hd channels in?

and when you make the call into cogeco what has been the best speech to give that gets results
thanks

[teakitty]

Hi, I've run into an unfortunate update to the battle.

After finding Jackastor's original explanation last year, we were able to successfully hook up our first Tivo premiere. It did take some talking, but the tech finally input the numbers & it worked. Tivo *love*

Now, fast forward 12 months to this evening. Our older tivo box subscription was up so we grabbed a 2nd premiere off ebay. Set it up, cable card installed, everything great, ready to roll. Called up Cogeco & now we've hit the brick wall. :mad:
It sounds like the cogeco programmers have formatted the entry screens so that the Tivo numbers will not fit. (number where letter should be, etc.)
Aaarghh!

Time to write some letters to the CRTC about the monopoly.

[shparson]

I am trying to activate a Cablecard in Canada on Cogeco as well.

Question 1: Does your setup still work?
Question 2: They always keep blocking me no the 'serial number' starting with "MA" and not "M4". As my Cablecard serial number starts with "MA".

Did you convince them to take the MA serial number or did you just say the serial number started with M4 instead?
Many thanks,