So, I just had an excruciating experience with my Tivo Romio and Comcast / Xfinity Support. It all started when I couldn't access seem to play any videos from the Xfinity video on demand (VOD) app on Tivo (I get an error CL-14 or GSM-11 repeatedly). I called Xfinity support and was connected to a cable card "expert." We spent literally 2.5 hours walking through all the steps to regain connectivity, including repeating the guided setup, logging into tivo and making some modifications and re-downloading the Tivo data. All of this was to no avail. I even went to the Comcast store at the suggestion of the cable card expert to pick up a new cablecard. The following day, the cable card technical called me back and explained to me she had just left a meeting where they were told that the Tivo Cable Cards would no longer support VOD on fiber networks and that my "area" had just been upgraded to fiber. She said all areas will sooner or later be upgraded to fiber. As a result, she explained to me that my cable card, along with all the cablecards of other Tivo users in the area are now "obsolete" (her words). When I asked how to obtain a new cablecard that was VOD compatible, she said, there is no such thing. They will not support VOD on Tivos any more on the fiber network.
This has me absolutely livid. First of all, they wasted my time trying to troubleshoot something that is incompatible and their supposed cablecard experts had no idea (apparently management didn't communicate this down to the rank and file). Second, I'm quite miffed because I specifically purchased the Tivo because I'd be able to eliminate the need for a clunky box through their cablecards.
If you are a comcast user, be prepared: You will loose your VOD access through your Tivo cablecard. I hope that if enough of us complain, they'll think twice about this and hopefully reverse their decision to not support VOD on the Tivo Cablecards. Please contact Tivo and Comcast and let them know how unhappy you are about this.
I just told another user this, but things like this and frequent price-hikes is what caused me to go OTA for local stuff (and MeTV, who knew there was such a thing?), and Amazon FireTV stick (25.00) with Kodi for all the pay shows.
It's like the cable companies are just daring us to give them up. "You can't live without Comcast! You'll be so sad all the time!" No, instead I get all the shows I want and more, and I don't pay you $200 a month to tick me off every billing cycle.
The following day, the cable card technical called me back and explained to me she had just left a meeting where they were told that the Tivo Cable Cards would no longer support VOD on fiber networks and that my "area" had just been upgraded to fiber. She said all areas will sooner or later be upgraded to fiber.
I'm not quibbling with what you're reporting here but I do wonder what she meant in reference to upgrading areas to fiber. Comcast's entire network all across the country has consisted of a lot of fiber for years now. It's actually known as HFC, or hybrid fiber/coaxial, meaning that the inner core of the network is composed of fiber while the outer edges of the network that connect directly to homes is composed of coaxial cable. As time has gone on, Comcast (and other cable companies) has expanded the reach of fiber in their networks and shortened the distances that the old traditional coaxial cables run. This provides more bandwidth in their network and generally makes everything faster and more reliable.
I'm not aware of Comcast converting any of their areas completely over to fiber (i.e. FTTH -- fiber to the home). And I've never read about any plans on Comcast's part to do that any time in the coming years (unlike Altice/Optimum, which has already begun converting their HFC network over to FTTH in some areas).
So I do wonder what it is that Comcast is actually doing in their network in your area that would make VOD incompatible with TiVo. Perhaps they are simply moving all VOD off of QAM and exclusively to IPTV (i.e. streaming), which would make it unavailable to TiVos unless they were to create a new IPTV-based VOD app for TiVo, the way that Cox cable did. But if that's what they actually did, then it would also mean that Comcast VOD would be unavailable to those older pre-X1 STBs that some Comcast customers are still using, since those STBs (like TiVos) are QAM-only and cannot access IPTV.
I would be thrilled if all I lost was VOD on Comcast. Our community is being switched over to Comcast FTTH and we have been told that our TiVo's won't work at all once the conversion is complete late this year.
A friend just went through this in his community and he lost his TiVo. Interestingly, according to his X1 diagnostic pages, his system is still using QAM. So, I am going to file an FCC complaint when the time comes and keep my fingers crossed.
Typical Comcast CS roulette BS. I don't believe that XOD went away, I believe there's an account issue for the OP. My guess is that it's the usual problem where the Tivo rate code is not on the account - this can happen anytime a plan is changed, upgraded, etc.
I'm guessing the 'OP' is 'Mikey13' on the Xfinity support forum and he's been there since yesterday with 'no Xfinity' responses. He didn't explicitly ask that a Comcast rep contact him but he has I'd think been there!
CableCARD TiVos can be used to watch and record linear channels from lots of providers (Charter, Verizon FiOS, Altice, etc.) but, to my knowledge, the only two providers with which a TiVo can access OnDemand services are Comcast and Cox. Both of those companies made an app especially for TiVo to let it access their OnDemand content. But those apps work in different ways. The newer Cox VOD app is basically just IPTV -- streaming video -- and has nothing to do with CableCARD. But the older Xfinity OnDemand app for TiVo delivers the video stream via QAM, I believe, and so I think is still dependent on CableCARD. But their TiVo app provides a way for the TiVo to send an upstream request for a specific show to Comcast's servers, so that it can then be delivered via QAM.
This seems to be in line with my experience last night and today with Comcast. I was checking my account and decided to see what packages were being offer. They were offer a package with twice the internet speed and two additional pay channels (Showtime and Movie Channel) for $10 less per month than I am currently paying. I tried to go through the process to change my package online and the web page would not allow me because I had two cable cards on my account. (Claim was they were "incompatible" with the package). I called in to the CSR today and he confirmed there is no issue and changed my package without a problem. (Granted, I haven't gone home from work, but I am assuming my TV is still working.)
I am not that worried about On-Demand as I typically use the channel Apps (with my Comcast login) to access any on-demand I want to watch. But, it sounds like Comcast is actively telling people that Cable Cards are no longer valid devices.
at least to the street, from there the endpoint is unknown, and tivo works fine. both google & at&t had already placed fiber at street level in our neighborhood within the past 6-8 months or so, construction has been underway all over town for months, and is still ongoing.
Yeah, so Google Fiber is definitely FTTH. AT&T runs both FTTN (fiber-to-the-node) -- formerly branded as Uverse -- and FTTH. Google Fiber is slowly rolling out (with problems) in Nashville. On my street, AT&T is still FTTN (fiber to a box down the street and then over the old copper phone wires from there) but should be converted to FTTH this year.
It sounds like what you're seeing there with Comcast, though, isn't FTTH. At least not at your home. If it was, you'd have an ONT (optical network terminal) installed at your house, same as with Google Fiber and AT&T Fiber, and your TiVo probably wouldn't work any more (at least based on what Comcast has told DigitalDawn and Astrohip). Maybe what's happening in your neighbor is just that Comcast is pushing fiber deeper into the network, all the way to your local node (with the fiber happening to run along your exact street). Each node serves a cluster of homes in your neighborhood via coax (not fiber) connections to each home. That kind of "deeper fiber" deployment has been on Comcast's publicly stated roadmap for some time now. But as I said before, I'm not aware of any major plans that Comcast has stated to convert entire areas/regions of their network over from HFC to full-on FTTH.
Given that Comcast fiber does now run along your street, I'm sure that Comcast would convert your home from HFC to FTTH by running a direct fiber connection from the street to your home, and installing an ONT, if you upgraded to their 2 Gbps fiber service for the low, low monthly price of $299.95 (plus equipment fees and taxes), along with a $1000 installation/activation fee.
Ha. Yeah. I've been saying for awhile now to expect them to raise the starting price of DTV Now to $40 once they finally roll out their cloud DVR, which they did back in May (although it's still in beta and somewhat buggy, I think). PS Vue and YouTube TV both used to have starting prices at $35 but then they both went up to $40 awhile back. Hulu with Live TV has always started at $40. So AT&T is really just price matching the competition here. Totally predictable move. Still stinks for their customers, though.
Ok, I had a chat with Comcast Cust Svc tonight. According to "Isaac", I will still have QAM. Of course, this is just one CSR, so who knows.
Here is the transcript, edited to remove fluff:
astrohip 9:24:04 PM
Hi astrohip, thank you for contacting Xfinity Chat Support. My name is Isaac.
Isaac 9:25:35 PM
I'm a current Comcast user, I have equipment that uses QAM (Comcast issued cablecards). I am moving into a hi-rise that is 100% fiber optic to each unit. The fiber optic connects to a Commscope MicroNode BOS-MND-1602-O, which has a coax output. I need to know if that coax output from the Commscope is std QAM coax, or IP only. In other words, will I be able to continue using Comcast issued cablecards to watch TV?
astrohip 9:25:44 PM
I should add, it is a Comcast fiber optic connection
astrohip 9:26:08 PM
I am reading your concern. please allow me a minute.
I am sory once again for 2 minutes late to response, yes you connect your cable box.
Isaac 9:36:32 PM
I'm feeling better about my odds. I did some more research on the Commscope device, a RFoG unit, and a spec sheet clearly states:
This standard defined a fiber-to-the-home system optimized for compatibility with hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) plant, using the same end equipment at both the home and at the headend or hub.
@astrohip, the only problem I ran into with using a cablecard on a new Cox fiber network (where every house got a RFoG device that sounds similar to the Commscope one that you mentioned above) was that the fiber ran to a new headend that hadn't been configured for cablecards/tuning adapters yet. Out of the gate, I could get everything except SDV channels (which involves sending signals upstream).
It took a lot of working with local Cox support (and ultimately filing a FCC complaint to get some higher-level focus on the issue), but they got it all working in about two weeks.
Hopefully you and @DigitialDawn will be good to go!
@astrohip, the only problem I ran into with using a cablecard on a new Cox fiber network (where every house got a RFoG device that sounds similar to the Commscope one that you mentioned above) was that the fiber ran to a new headend that hadn't been configured for cablecards/tuning adapters yet. Out of the gate, I could get everything except SDV channels (which involves sending signals upstream).
And Comcast doesn't even use SDV, so that shouldn't be a factor for astrohip or DigitalDawn. So hopefully DigitalDawn was just given bad info when she was told that her TiVo would no longer work after the switchover to FTTH. You just really never know if what a particular Comcast rep tells you is true or not.
Yeah. If they're willing to give their mobile customers $15 off of DTV Now (or get AT&T Watch TV, normally $15, for free), it would seem logical that they would let those customers instead use the $15 credit toward the cost of this upcoming "premium" OTT service. But I don't know that AT&T always operates logically, ha.
What sort of bundle discount do they offer when you package together mobile service with DTV satellite? I'm sure there's some kind of up-front promo pricing that expires in 12-24 months (which you always get, to some degree, with DTV satellite anyhow). But is there a permanent, ongoing $X off per month the way that there is with DTV Now's $15 discount?
received an answer today that matched the op, confirming xod was no longer available to tivo customers who live in comcast markets, following the upgrade to fiber.
For whatever it’s worth, I went from 2009-2014 with my Moxi DVR and no access to Comcast on Demand and it wasn’t all that bad. And with all the streaming options now I’d probably prefer to keep my TiVo going as long as I can than switchover to X1 but that’s just me.
For whatever it's worth, I went from 2009-2014 with my Moxi DVR and no access to Comcast on Demand and it wasn't all that bad. And with all the streaming options now I'd probably prefer to keep my TiVo going as long as I can than switchover to X1 but that's just me.
i can access on demand using xfinitystream in my web browser on the pc, and the stream app on android mobile, but that's not the point - it's a loss of service, unacknowledged by, or unknown to, both tivo and comcast highest levels of tech support (at the moment), which wastes hours of time in troubleshooting.
is it worth ditching tivo for x1? not at the moment, no, but that all depends on what other services are lost along the way in the future, and i would definitely think twice before investing in new tivo equipment, that's for sure.
I’m glad I found this thread. We haven’t been able to use Comcast on demand for about a month. Many calls to Comcast and a tech to the house. Comcast is aware of this issue and they stated this affects Georgia and Florida. There is an open outage ticket. JB22668507 Comcast has always seemed unwilling to properly support cable cards. Would it be worth contacting the FCC?
Hi guys, sorry I haven't weighed in on this yet. We built the Xfinity On-Demand app back in 2011 to interface with Comcast's (now legacy) on-demand system. This system streams over digital cable (QAM) channels and does not support IP delivery. The app mechanism that we used on the TiVo box (HME) has also been largely put into maintenance mode. This is why the look & feel of the XOD app is still the old blue with yellow menu highlights.
As Comcast upgrades their network, they have committed to maintaining support for using CableCARD to access linear TV channels, but not on-demand channels. It's still early days, but we are working closely with Comcast to design and build a more modern way to access their new digital services.
As Comcast upgrades their network, they have committed to maintaining support for using CableCARD to access linear TV channels, but not on-demand channels. It's still early days, but we are working closely with Comcast to design and build a more modern way to access their new digital services.
Good to hear y'all are working together. The only reason I stay with Comcast is TiVo. When that is no longer an option, Comcast will lose me to DirecTV.
'gist: Contact the FCC all you want, but there is no regulation requiring Comcast to provide access to their Video On Demand library, just access to their linear cable channels via CableCARD.
Hi guys, sorry I haven't weighed in on this yet. We built the Xfinity On-Demand app back in 2011 to interface with Comcast's (now legacy) on-demand system. This system streams over digital cable (QAM) channels and does not support IP delivery. The app mechanism that we used on the TiVo box (HME) has also been largely put into maintenance mode. This is why the look & feel of the XOD app is still the old blue with yellow menu highlights.
As Comcast upgrades their network, they have committed to maintaining support for using CableCARD to access linear TV channels, but not on-demand channels. It's still early days, but we are working closely with Comcast to design and build a more modern way to access their new digital services.
It’s all a matter of semantics. They already have dropped extra HD HBO’s from linear to on demand only and have pushed HD sports packages like Extra Innings to IPTV.
It's all a matter of semantics. They already have dropped extra HD HBO's from linear to on demand only and have pushed HD sports packages like Extra Innings to IPTV.
So you're saying that when Comcast says that channels will gradually become unavailable to non-X1 users, it's simply because they're going to completely pull the plug on those linear channels and move the underlying content over to IP-delivered on-demand? Maybe, but I kinda doubt it. Beyond the premium multiplex channels (e.g. HBO 2, HBO Signature, Showtime 2, Showtime Extreme, etc.), which all just air the same stuff at different times, and specialty live sports packages like Extra Innings (which don't constitute 24/7 linear broadcast channels, even if they are transmitted via a linear channel slot), I can't think of other examples of linear channels that Comcast could easily pull from their line-up and replace with just that channel's on-demand library.
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