TW-San Diego SDV starts 7/28/08

[MirclMax]

Just received a notice in the mail indicating that TimeWarner will deploy SDV on July 28th. As a unidirectional cable-card user, they are advising me that they will be moving some of their "less-viewed channels" over to that system, and will thus not be available. (List of channels below)

Some good news? They specifically reference TiVo and the S3/HD models and state that expect to offer the Tuning Adapters to customers "later this year". Further they say "It is currently contemplated that the Tuning Adapter will be provided at no additional charge." (Lot of wiggle-room there).

They also say at the end that they've created a "special offer to help" during the transition. I have not yet called to find out what that offer would be.

Though I would have wanted them to wait to deploy SDV until after the Tuning Adapter was *actually* available .. other than that, it seems that they are conducting themselves decently. Other than that .. I don't think I'm going to mind *too* much the channels they are moving... (but others might)

Which channels?
East Coast Premiums:
HBO East, Showtime East, Starz East

International Premiums:
TheFilipino Channel, Saigon Broadcast TV

Movie Package:
Encore East, Encore Action East, Encore Mystery East, Encore True Stories East, Encore Westerns East, Encore Love Stories East

Spanish Language Package:
Cine Latino, Sorpresa, Fox Sports en Espanol, MUN2, MTV Tr3s, Video Rola, Canal Sur, CNN en Espanol, Discovery Espanol, Boomerang Espanol, Toon Disney Espanol, EWTV Espanol, ESPN Deportes, Gol TV

Sports Package:
ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic, SPEED, Fox Soccer Channel, FCS Pacific, FCS Central, FCS Atlantic, HorseRacing TV, Tennis Channels, GSN, NBA TV, Fuel, CBS College Sports Network

High Definition Channels:
Universal HD, MOJO HD, HD Net, HD Net Moviews, NBA TV HD

[s2kdave]

yeah, I just got the letter today. :-( And after all that work of getting them to enable the east coast channels on the cards they're moving them to SDV. Hopefully the SDV channel list won't grow before the tuning adapter comes available. I can live with that. I haven't called either about that offer, but I am curious what it is and why they couldn't just tell us in the letter.

David

[MirclMax]

Originally Posted by s2kdave

I haven't called either about that offer, but I am curious what it is and why they couldn't just tell us in the letter.

My *guess* would be that they'll offer a receiver capable of picking up those channels .. perhaps one of their DVRs .. I'm thinking they'd do this with no charge to get you to somehow realize their stuff is as good or better than your TiVo ..(perish the thought)..

Anyhow.. that's just my guess .. I'm sure someone will report back what is/was offered .. if not, I'm sure I'll call at some point.

I have to say I find it kind of amusing that .. "to save bandwidth".. they are moving GSN from the sports pack (presumably ch 412) ... yet they're leaving GSN in the choice pack (ch 241) untouched. I have to think the best way to save bandwidth would be not to broadcast the same channel twice. *sigh*

So I'm fine if they move 412 .. just as long as I get to keep tuning into 241

[c-surfer]

Can't they just reclaim some bandwidth? There are a lot of garbage channels: for example, the 4 or so analog shopping channels.

[c-surfer]

Originally Posted by s2kdave

I am curious what it is and why they couldn't just tell us in the letter.

Is your letter printed on 2 sides. The channel list is on the back-side.

[mikeyts]

I posted a transcription of that letter today at the end of the SDV FAQ thread, here, but you beat me to it, MirclMax . My post does cite the whole letter, verbatim.

Originally Posted by c-surfer

Is your letter printed on 2 sides. The channel list is on the back-side.

He was referring to the letter's statement, "We have created a special offer to help you during the transition." Cox Phoenix apparently sent out a similar letter and offered an HD digital STB for the same cost as leasing a CableCARD for the first six months (see this post). I suspect that TWC's offer is something similar.

We TiVo people are going to get relief with the coming of the Tuning Adapter, but most people using CableCARDs in UDCP televisions are SOL. They hint that there are more devices that the TA will work with than CableCARD TiVos--I wonder what they are.

[mel.simmons]

I called TWC in San Diego about the letter announcing SDV starting 28 July. They offered me a free cable box (which I declined), and also are eliminating the monthly fee for the cable card (I have one M-card). I dropped the VIP HD package because all of the channels in that package are going SDV. So my monthly bill will be a little smaller.
The customer service rep thought the Tuning Adapter would become available early next calendar year. That's the latest date I have heard yet. But of course she did not have any firm information on that.

[mikeyts]

Well, the letter says "later this year". I wouldn't put much store in what a sales CSR might know about it.

We gotta call about that CableCARD fee elimination thing. I have an Series3, so there are two CableCARD fees.

[int2str]

Huh?

IMHO TimeWarner San Diego has been using SDV for a while now. At least that's what it seems like to me. I've also called support various times and while not using the term SDV, they kind of admitted it...

[mikeyts]

Originally Posted by int2str

Huh?

IMHO TimeWarner San Diego has been using SDV for a while now. At least that's what it seems like to me. I've also called support various times and while not using the term SDV, they kind of admitted it...

Without the coming Tuning Adapter, TiVo cannot tune Switched Broadcast channels; I'm unaware of any non-VOD, non-IPPV channels that I can't tune on TWC San Diego with my TiVo Series3. As announced in the letter, come the 28th, there will be 45 such channels. What specifically are you talking about?

[MirclMax]

Originally Posted by mel.simmons

I called TWC in San Diego about the letter announcing SDV starting 28 July. They offered me a free cable box (which I declined), and also are eliminating the monthly fee for the cable card (I have one M-card). I dropped the VIP HD package because all of the channels in that package are going SDV. So my monthly bill will be a little smaller.
The customer service rep thought the Tuning Adapter would become available early next calendar year. That's the latest date I have heard yet. But of course she did not have any firm information on that.

Just wanted to follow up on this thread a tiny bit. Made the call today. The only thing different then the impression I got from the above post .. was that it was EITHER a cable box OR waiving the fee for (up to 2) cable cards (Not box + no charge for cards). (I chose to waive the fee).

Oh, and the waiving of the fee is for 6months.

[mikeyts]

Originally Posted by mikeyts

Without the coming Tuning Adapter, TiVo cannot tune Switched Broadcast channels; I'm unaware of any non-VOD, non-IPPV channels that I can't tune on TWC San Diego with my TiVo Series3. As announced in the letter, come the 28th, there will be 45 such channels. What specifically are you talking about?

I found out yesterday (in this post at hdtv.forsandiego.com) that TWC San Diego has already been using switched broadcasts on the network, to transmit some 13 channels in the digital simulcast: QVC(25), FSPRT(31), LIF(32), TRU(39), AMC(43), A&E(45), WE(54), SciFi(57), CMT(58), Hall(60), LMN(61), APL(64), TVLand(65), Golf(67), BET(69), Travel(70), ION(71) & TVGuide(99). (This information came from hdtv.forsandiego.com user holl_ands, who first posted it on June 18th).

This didn't affect CableCARD users since for us they map those channels to the analog versions, so we didn't have access to the digital versions when they weren't switched. No doubt, they'll be moving all or most of the 70 or so digital simulcast channels into switched broadcast.

[mikeyts]

CableLabs has certified both the Motorola and Cisco Tuning Adapters. You can see an article about it here.

[mikeyts]

Full initial deployment of switched broadcast appears to have started, one day later than stated in the notice (fine by me, since it allowed me to record one last episode of Torchwood on HDNet ). I've lost access to the HD VIP Pak and all of the Sports Pak except for Tennis (the only one that I regularly watch). Very strange, and I'm not expecting that to last. Nice, for however long it lasts, since Tennis is currently covering early round matches at the Cincinnati AMS tournament.

Oh well. Bring on the Tuning Adapter!

[BrentlyL]

My suggestion to Time Warner, Mail the tuning adaptor with a letter THEN shut off the channels. But I think this must make too much sense for them.

I am a custom installer and I sell TiVo HD units because Time Warner's boxes are so bad and because I am so tired of customers calling me with cable box problems (we have Scientific Atlanta and a few Pace boxes here in the Palm Springs CA). I used to sell DirecTV TiVo's but we all know what's happened there.

So now we have this new problem...missing channels and no "tuning adaptor". Can someone please tell me why the cable companies would remove channels BEFORE providing the adaptor? I have to think that there MUST be some reason the cable co’s decided to do it this way, a business reason…something. Or is it that they just don’t get it?? Oh to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting. It seems to me that going at it this way just costs them more. All the customer support calls they have to field, the "free" cable box and possibly the rolling of a truck to hook it up, more customers complaining about how bad <insert your cable company name here> is and of course the loss of income from the programming packages we’re going to cancel until we can get those channels back.

So I’m looking at my list of customers with TiVo HD units, if cancel their HD VIP Tier and the Digital Sports Pack, Time Warner is going to not make almost $2500 in the 6 months we have to wait for the adaptor. I have no idea how many Series 3 & HD units are out there or how many of those owners have packages like this but I'm sure the programming dollars total a nice chunk of change.

And this so called "offer"… a free crappy cable box for 6 months. BIG DEAL! These are the boxes my customers wanted removed and I, as an installer, do not want to have to reconnect it and reprogram the universal remote for little or no money. This “offer” is a joke.

Today I called TW and was offered the free box, which of course I declined, and then they offered to comp the cable card for 6 months. 6 months @ $1.75 ...I don't think so. When I asked instead to have my bill adjusted to compensate for the missing channels this is what she said... "Sir, I can’t do that. If we did that for you and everyone else we would lose a lot of money". I almost laughed myself out of my chair. I then proceeded to ask her to remove the Sports Pack and the HD Pack. $14.95 X 6 months = $89.70. She did that.

I think the best thing we can do at this point is to cancel all of the programming that they have removed.

[BrentlyL]

It looks like DirecTV has way more HD channels than cable. Will SDV allow cable provides to carry as many channels as DTV? I haven't had much time to research this. My hope it that eventually we will get much more HD content.

I have been contemplating a move to Hawaii. The biggest pill for me to swallow is going to be the lack of great tech over there.

[mikeyts]

San Diego is johnny-come-lately to this situation. There are half a dozen TWC systems where they launched SDV nearly a year back. In TWC San Antonio there are something like 30 HD channels that cannot be accessed by Unidirectional Digital Cable Ready equipment (like TiVo). When they launched SDV in TWC Oceanic (Hawaii), they presented every single available HD channel as SDV. What they've done here so far is nothing in comparison to what they've done in some other TWC systems.

Some systems (like Cox San Diego) are adding some channels for the upcoming Olympic games, including USA HD and temporary NBC Olympic Soccer and Olympic Basketball HD channels. If TWC San Diego chooses to do that, I have a suspicion that they'll do it as SDV.

The cable providers really don't care very much about this issue, since they claim that they've only leased about 300,000 CableCARDs between them, nationwide--split between all the cable markets, that's peanuts. No system's got more than a few thousand subs using CableCARD, so if they all dumped their service (which they won't all do) cable wouldn't cry very hard.

We should be happy that they're doing the Tuning Adapter at all. It was a cable industry driven iniative from the beginning, in response to consumer electronic manufacturers' complaints to the FCC about the cost of making interactive CableCARD products, given the cable provider's complex and expensive preferred system for that (I explain some of that in this post).

[mikeyts]

Originally Posted by mikeyts

Full initial deployment of switched broadcast appears to have started, one day later than stated in the notice...I've lost access to the HD VIP Pak and all of the Sports Pak except for Tennis (the only one that I regularly watch). Very strange, and I'm not expecting that to last.

As expected, I lost Tennis today . Oh well.

On a positive note, I got the 9.4 update last night. I notice an added "Tuning Adapter" item on the "Account & System Information" menu. Select it and you get a dialog with the big heading "No Tuning Adapter" and an explanation of what a Tuning Adapter is. Promising. (No doubt this has been covered in the 9.4 update thread ).

[mel.simmons]

Perhaps linked to the redesign of the web site, San Diego TWC now includes (for the first time, I think) the form for ordering a Tuning Adapter.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/sandi...r/dtaform.html

[c-surfer]

Telephone the local customer service number: they know nothing!

The new web-site is based on a template from Time Warner Corporate.

[Agro]

I filled it out. I doubt I'll hear anything.

[mikeyts]

Originally Posted by c-surfer

Telephone the local customer service number: they know nothing!

The new web-site is based on a template from Time Warner Corporate.

As was the old one. Every TWC local website uses the same fonts and art properties as every other and they all look almost identical.

The corporate website has had a page for requesting a TA for quite some time. The first step was to enter your local zip code, after which it'd take you to a page for filling in your other information. If you filled in a San Diego zip, it'd take you to the top page of San Diego's site. Many people in other locations got to a form to fill out and those people have reported receiving e-mail notifications when TAs became available locally. Now that there is a form locally, I'm sure that they'll send out notifications to people who fill them.

[sddjd]

Originally Posted by Agro

I filled it out. I doubt I'll hear anything.

Same here. Spent an hour on the phone last week to get a determination of which missing channels were now SDV and which were just due to TWSD again hosing up my cablecard accounts.

I think my favorite was that ONE of the four people I talked to even admitted to knowing what a tuning adapter was. The "supervisor" claimed ignorance, and the one rep who did comment gave me an estimate of a year to "work out the software on the devices" (whatever that's supposed to mean).

None of this crew ever noted that the web registration page is up... probably an FCC placebo rather than a sign of hope. IMO they'll delay until the lawyers get involved, just as they did with Oceanic....

[s2kdave]

I talked to someone on the phone about the tuning adapter. He said it's not available quite yet. In about 3-4 weeks they are going to start collecting a list of names for early sign up. Not sure if they plan to use that form or another one though.

[mikeyts]

Originally Posted by sddjd

None of this crew ever noted that the web registration page is up... probably an FCC placebo rather than a sign of hope. IMO they'll delay until the lawyers get involved, just as they did with Oceanic....

People are reporting the launch of the TA in several TWC divisions around the nation, and as far as I know, only Oceanic has been chastised by the FCC. You can see those reports in the "SDV Tuning Adapter-Time Warner" thread.

I don't know what the delay is here. It may be that every division isn't using the same admixture of hardware and software elements to implement SDV, and the proprietary network-side stuff in the TA is different here than in the places where it's working. I have confidence that they're working on it.

[JimboG]

I remember very well that Time Warner Cable - San Diego said they would launch the tuning adapter no later than the end of 2008.

Then again, they also said to call in for a "special offer" for Tivo HD users who were losing channels to SDV. The "special offer" was the same six months of cable card access without fees that they offered for the first round of channels lost to SDV as announced in late July.

Let's see, you take away a bunch of channels and charge me the same amount of money, but comp me the cable card that can only see the remaining channels. You then take away a bunch more channels, keep the rate the same, and the "special offer" is the same cable card I'm already getting for free from the last time you removed channels?!

I guess since I mainly watch the HD channels, I focus first and foremost on the HD channels. I take the total number of linear HD channels, subtract the number of free over the air channels, and then add back in Comedy Central, Adult Swim, and TCM since they are the only SD cable channels that I watch. With SDV knocking out HDnet, HDnet Movies, and a bunch of other HD channels, the total number of non-over the air HD channels that I want to watch and still can receive with my Series 3 Tivo is quite small. Divide my very large cable bill by this small number of cable-exclusive channels I can receive and you get.... a pretty lousy value proposition.

I am so glad I dropped TWC's video service and went over the air only with my Series 3 Tivo. I can't imagine the frustration of waiting a few more weeks and then a few more weeks again for TWC to fulfill their promises. It's a shame that our local telco is AT&T instead of Verizon. Local Fios service would put some real pressure on TWC to offer decent quality per dollar.

[Yoav]

Still waiting for my tuninga adapter too. On my last call with 'customer service' they said they had the full list of customers with cablecards (to which they sent out those form letters) and will contact us as soon as they have something. So far, they've heard nothing.

When I requested they stop charging me for channels I can't see (i.e. reduce my package) they willingly obliged, and also gave me back a small amount of cash.. The only downside is that I've lost a bunch of channels in the 200s (which I don't really care about).

The silver lining is that the CSR mentioned that he *expects* to have SDV adapters available once the digital transition happens (i.e. Feb -- except that now that's set for July). Then again, I see no reason why those two things should be related...

Still waiting .. still grumpy.

[Agro]

I received this 2/4/09. Not that this helps or anything, but just FYI...

February 4, 2009


Thank you for your request for the SDV Tuning Adapter. Your Pre-Order has been received and your information recorded. At this time the Tuning Adapter is not available in all TWC areas and we continue testing to ensure that this equipment meets the highest levels of customer satisfaction. We expect the Tuning Adapters to be released sometime in February in many remaining areas of the country. Although we do not have a specific release date for your area, once the Tuning Adapter becomes available a service representative will contact you to schedule the installation.

Thank you,

D. Jacobs
Corporate Tuning Adapter Desk
Time Warner Cable

[muya]

So here's a little update for those of us in San Diego, CA.

I twittered how much TWC is pissing me off about the whole SDV and Tivo thing. I get a DM from a TWC customer service rep. He said he's on it, he's forwarding my message to his "crème de la crem of customer service reps". I think, yeah, whatever. Heard it all before. 15 minutes later I get a call from this rep in New York, explain the whole SDV and Tivo thing. He says he'll put a call into the San Diego office, and they'll be in touch. Again, I think to myself, yeah, whatever. To my surprise, I get a call an hour later from a TWC "Customer Retention Specialist" from the San Diego office. She tells me they have the adapter in the field and are testing it, to be patient, maybe 1 or 2 months.

This is farther than I have ever gotten with any customer service. All from twittering how unhappy I was about Time Warner Cable.

[mel.simmons]

On a whim, I tried calling Time Warner Cable in San Diego about the availability of Tuning Adapters. To my surprise, the Customer Service Rep said that the launch date will be 10 March, and that letters with details will go out in the next few days.