Time Warner cable card info-PremiereXL

[zr1100]

New to Forum--Has ANYONE been able to get full digital service from Time Warner with CableCard (and Tuning Adapter?) on a Premiere (XL) series 4?
I tried in 2011, but was unsuccessful.
Thank You--

[dsm363]

That's what I have. You may have to have them come out 4 or 5 times to set it up as each person who comes out seems to never have heard of a Cablecard before but it's possible. Good luck.

[CybrFyre]

Only issue I have had is the tuning adapter sometimes dropping channels. Rebooting the tuning adapter itself fixes the problem. Exact same issue on my tivohd.

The initial setup was smooth and painless doing a self install and calling the national cablecard number. Those folk seemed well trained and knowledgable.

[ajwees41]

Originally Posted by zr1100

New to Forum--Has ANYONE been able to get full digital service from Time Warner with CableCard (and Tuning Adapter?) on a Premiere (XL) series 4?
I tried in 2011, but was unsuccessful.
Thank You--

what do you consider full digital service? they have cable card self installs

[jcthorne]

There are lots of folks here that endure Time Warner Cable on thier Tivo box. Perhaps its time you consider a different media source?

[muzzymate]

Yes, I'm using 2 Tivo Premieres with Time Warner, cablecard, and tuning adapter. Be prepared to have them come out multiple times to get everything working correctly.

They'll either show up without a tuning adapter and refuse to install your cable modem (because they can't separate out tasks on their work order) or they'll come out with a tuning adapter without a power supply. It was incompetent city trying to get those clowns to do their job!

There was even a time when they left the cablecard for me to call the self-install line. That was the easiest part of the process. The self install line know what they are doing and won't waste your time.

But after it was all up and running, I've been problem free for about 9 months. I don't even have any issues with my tuning adapters. ::Knocks on wood::

[nycmiddle]

I have lived in two apartments and had TWC at both. I had a Premier at the first apartment and have an Elite now in my second apartment. Each time I have only had to have a technician come once to pair the cable card. I consider myself fortunate given the issues many people have reported.

[rainwater]

TWC will also pair cards over the phone now using their special Cablecard hotline. You should be able to go to the local TWC office and get a tuning adapter and cablecard. They should activate the tuning adapter before you leave the office. Then you just need to hook it up and call the hotline to activate the card.

[royar]

Could you describe the process of activating the TA at the local office? Our local office is 90 miles from my house. The installers have brought out two adapters and neither would initialize. I asked about initializing it at their office, but they (two different installers) knew nothing about that step. They have been responsive about this issue. They listened to my Cable Card suggestions and brought out two cards on the third trip which their supervisor had set up before they came out. That trip the card paired immediately. But they have not had similar luck with TAs. I think they mainly install cards in TWC's own DVRs which don't need adapters.

The TAs they bring here are Motorola MTR700s (with MOTO CC Multistream 1-way-RF). So far the two TAs have had Firmware v. 1.27 (2008). I have read that that FW does not work with Premiers.

[CybrFyre]

The CC hotline will also activate the TA.

And they will mail you a kit containing the TA and CC. No local office visit or truck roll either required or needed.

Only issue I have had is the TA losing channels every so often. It gets in some weird state where you cannot even pull up the diagnostics screens. power cycling the TA fixes things for a few weeks. Not unique to my Elite. The HD has the same issue with the TA.

[rainwater]

Originally Posted by royar

Could you describe the process of activating the TA at the local office? Our local office is 90 miles from my house. The installers have brought out two adapters and neither would initialize. I asked about initializing it at their office, but they (two different installers) knew nothing about that step. They have been responsive about this issue. They listened to my Cable Card suggestions and brought out two cards on the third trip which their supervisor had set up before they came out. That trip the card paired immediately. But they have not had similar luck with TAs. I think they mainly install cards in TWC's own DVRs which don't need adapters.

The TAs they bring here are Motorola MTR700s (with MOTO CC Multistream 1-way-RF). So far the two TAs have had Firmware v. 1.27 (2008). I have read that that FW does not work with Premiers.

The tuning adapter should be activated on their system at the office no different than they would a cable box. I've done it a few times and they just scanned the bar code on the box and they were done. Unlike a cablecard, there's no other information they need so they don't need to wait until it gets hooked up to a TiVo. It seems your situation is different and the installers don't know what they are doing. I would have them leave a tuning adapter with you and call the cablecard hotline for TWC. They clearly will be better prepared than your local installers.

[royar]

I listened to the installer who called the CC hotline. It was the same number I used to resolve the first issue with the CC. They told him they could not detect the TA on the line and asked if it had been entered correctly in their DB. We have an old Motorola DCT in the bedroom (connected to an old pre-digital CRT TV and a TiVo series 2). It gets all the non-HD channels to which we subscribe. Our TAs have never been inited.

[royar]

I was not offered the mail option, just pick it up at the local office or send out a truck. I do understand that other regions do offer this. The closest "local" office is 90 miles from here although there is a bill-pay storefront with one office worker only 30 miles away, but I know from past experience that site will only accept cable orders or bill payments.

[rainwater]

Originally Posted by royar

I was not offered the mail option, just pick it up at the local office or send out a truck. I do understand that other regions do offer this. The closest "local" office is 90 miles from here although there is a bill-pay storefront with one office worker only 30 miles away, but I know from past experience that site will only accept cable orders or bill payments.

Because you are so far away from the office, it is possible you are on a different head-end than the area where the office is. That is a possible reason they don't detect the tuning adapter. However, I have never heard of anyone having issues activating a tuning adapter (maybe getting them to work all the time). It truly should be a simple process. At this point, I would probably email them: twcable.help@twcable.com

[royar]

On Friday afternoon (28 September) a technician showed up unexpectedly with a new TA. This is 3 1/2 months after the problem began. I believe twcable.help at twcable is the main reason this finally got resolved. They stayed on the ticket. The result was that the cause of the problem was basically what the TiVo CableCard technician (and his TW counterpart) and some of you suggested near the beginning. The TA was provisioned for a different headend. The installer technician told me the boxes they had been bringing me were from a TW system on the other side of our state. He tracked down two TAs that were set up for our headend, and the second one worked. The first locked on signal immediately, but the TiVo would not recognize a TA was attached. The second locked on, and the TiVo locked on. I now have all the premium channels we receive, instead of the 20% I was getting before.
Thanks to the folks here and special thanks to rainwater who gave me the help email.

[bengalfreak]

At one point, TWC was turning the copy flag off on almost every HD channel making MRV next to useless. Can anyone tell me if this is still the case?

[NotNowChief]

Originally Posted by bengalfreak

At one point, TWC was turning the copy flag off on almost every HD channel making MRV next to useless. Can anyone tell me if this is still the case?

Yes it is.

Two months ago I finally switched to FiOs, and the best feeling in the world was walking into their stupid store with all their crap equipment in a bag, dropping it on the floor, and telling the guy to cancel my service and get me out of the store before I get loud and nasty.

I was rebooting tuning adapters multiple times a day.
EVERYTHING, even network broadcast channels like NBC and FOX were copyright flagged.
Their tech support and technicians knew nothing about cable cards.
Their customer service cannot understand English.

SO GOOD LUCK TO THE OP, in my experience, TiVo and TWC are like oil and water.

FiOs, I just plugged in the card, went online to activate it, and in 5 minutes flat I was watching HBO.

[jcthorne]

Originally Posted by royar

On Friday afternoon (28 September) a technician showed up unexpectedly with a new TA. This is 3 1/2 months after the problem began. I believe twcable.help at twcable is the main reason this finally got resolved. They stayed on the ticket. The result was that the cause of the problem was basically what the TiVo CableCard technician (and his TW counterpart) and some of you suggested near the beginning. The TA was provisioned for a different headend. The installer technician told me the boxes they had been bringing me were from a TW system on the other side of our state. He tracked down two TAs that were set up for our headend, and the second one worked. The first locked on signal immediately, but the TiVo would not recognize a TA was attached. The second locked on, and the TiVo locked on. I now have all the premium channels we receive, instead of the 20% I was getting before.
Thanks to the folks here and special thanks to rainwater who gave me the help email.

Now its time to ask them for a credit for all the programming they did not deliver because of thier inablilty to provide the correct hardware and install it. Why should you have been paying for programming you could not watch do to thier incompetance?

[royar]

Originally Posted by jcthorne

Now its time to ask them for a credit for all the programming they did not deliver because of thier inablilty to provide the correct hardware and install it. Why should you have been paying for programming you could not watch do to thier incompetance?

They gave me a refund of 80% of the bill for the period that I only received 20% of the channels. I did send them a detailed description of what I was supposed to receive and what I was receiving. The total they refunded was a little more than one month's total bill (which also includes Internet). It nearly paid for the TiVo.