Cox Cable Cards

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Called Cox Las Vegas after purchasing the S3. They informed me I could pickup the CableCARDs at the Rancho office. Drive down there on my lunch hour and they say they must be installed and they didn't even have the CableCARDs at that location. Fortunately, they scheduled my install for the very next day between 3-5

Around 4pm the installer shows up with 2 CableCARDs in his shirt pocket. He asks me if they are going into a Tivo I say yes, and he said he thought so. I asked if he'd ever installed the cards into a Tivo before and he said he had, but he huffled and puffed a littled about how long they took.

The install went perfectly and took 20 mins. He inserted the first card, called in and read off the HOST ID, and did the same for the 2nd. All channels worked instantly.

Very pleased with everything. Now I just need an OTA antenna and transfer my liftime from my SVR2000 and I'll be good to go.

 

How much does Cox charge for CableCards in New Orleans or Baton Rouge?

 

I spoke to a supervisor at Cox and had them refund the entire cost of the truck roll and card install because I was told that I could pick up the cards at the local office and was then told that they had to be installed after I had driven all the way down there and waited for my number to be called. Its up to you, but I was glad to get that $50 back for my trouble.

 

Here is my cable bill from AFTER cable cards (the number before the charge is quantity and is included in the fee):
COX LIMITED BASIC 2 19.95
COX EXPANDED SERVICE 2 20.00
DIGITAL GATEWAY SERVICE 2 7.00
VARIETY TIER 2 5.00
HBO 2 12.95
SHOWTIME 2 7.00
COX HDTV 2 0.00
HD EXPANDED TIER 2 0.00
COX CABLECARD 2 4.00
Total Monthly Cable Service $75.90

Here is my cable bill from BEFORE cable cards:
COX LIMITED BASIC 1 19.95
COX EXPANDED SERVICE 1 20.00
DIGITAL GATEWAY SERVICE 1 5.00
VARIETY TIER 1 5.00
HBO 1 10.95
SHOWTIME 1 5.95
HD DIGITAL RECEIVER 1 10.00
COX HDTV 1 0.00
HD EXPANDED TIER 1 0.00
Total Monthly Cable Service $76.85

Cox also increased the fee for the premium services (hbo and showtime) in the Phoenix market and that increase is not because of the cable cards. All in all, the two cable cards comes out cheaper than a single cable box.

 

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Ok, I just got off the phone with COX. What a terribly system. It will cost me 16 dollars a month for 2 cablecards. I live in a dorm at UCSB, so we do not get HD service. We get standard service, and I can get ABC in HD with an antenna.

My question is, what will I be losing by just sticking with standard cable, and not using the cablecards? I have had the 8300HD and it is the biggest piece of garbage. Will I still be able to get my premium channels(HBO, Showtime)? Thanks for the help!

 

Had Cox Fairfax install my two CC's today and i am happy to report it only took about 25 minutes. Each card costs 1.99 a month but they charge you twice for the digital gateways. When my bill arrives i am going to complain about being charged for two digital gateways since their HD DVR has dual tuners and they only charged one digital gateway. I don't see the difference.

 

Folks, Cox here in Orange County, CA told me Cox Digital Gateway does not apply if you subscribe to Cox Digital Cable or Cox Digital Cable Deluxe. It only applies if you only want the digital music channels, PPV and the guide but don't care to have the digital cable channels. If you are already subscribing to Cox Digital Cable or Cox Digital Cable Deluxe and they're also dinging you for Cox Digital Gateway, I would think you're getting double-dipped.

 

That's correct. I'm in OC and kept my digital service and will be charged for:
2*$1.99 CC rental
2*$1.59 additional outlet fee (arguably should only be 1 for 1 Tivo box)
After trial period is over and I'm confident about the S3 I will be returning the Cox DVR so expect to be able to drop to 1 additional outlet fee (though arguably there shouldn't be any with 1 Tivo box and no cable box) in addition to the DVR box rental fee & the DVR service fee.

 

You guys have a different rate structure (which I find surprising, but there you have it). Cox/Fairfax has a "Each additional Digital outlet" charge of $5.95/month (it's not called Digital Gateway ... in Cox/Fairfax, "Digital Gateway" is required to get any digital channels). I think that's what the original poster was talking about. I don't mind paying the cost of one additional digital outlet for the Tivo, but the cost of two digital outlets sticks in my craw. I guess your additional outlet fee is $1.50/month.

Perhaps us Cox/Fairfax customers should all complain to Fairfax County? They seem to be the relevant governing body. You can even do it online.

 

Well, I just filed my complaint with Fairfax County regarding getting charged for two digital outlet fees (I did try going through Cox CSR rep, who basically told me the extra charge was Tivo's fault). Did anyone else complaint to their municipality or relevant governing authority? I don't know if anything will come of this, but I figure it's worth a shot.

 

I just ordered ordered the Digital Cable Service, two cable cards for the Series3 plus an HD PVR for a 2nd location from Cox Orange County, CA and they said they would only add one additional digital outlet fee for the HD PVR. Counting your Series3 as two outlets really blows, since, as someone else mentioned, their own PVR can record two things at once from a single outlet (don't have it yet so can't confirm). Hope this helps with your cause.

 

IM not sure what you mean by cable cards. I have Cox in Phoenix and have no problems with the series 2. Cox doesnt know I have tivo and I dont plan to let them know either because its none of their business. Cox already has too much of the "digital pie" imho

 

You'd know it all too well if you had a S3 . Think Tivo in HD! The S3 doesn't use a cablebox, it 'is' your cable box and it tunes the digital / HD channels. the cablecards are what authorize the Tivo's tuners for the channels you subscribe to.

 

My TCStore Series3 is arriving on Friday according to DHL. I have scheduled my 2 cable card installs for Saturday morning. I will give an update post install.

Also, the Cox CSR tried really hard to talk me out of the cards stating that I would not be happy and I should stay with the 2 DVRs I have been renting from them (I also have a Series2 as well) She kept saying that picture quality was horrible and Tivo didn't stack up well against the SA 8300 DVRs. All I could do was laugh and asked her to fill my order as I asked. She did so but kept repeating that there was going to be a $50 charge every time the CC failed. The really seem to be pushing back really hard to keep cards from going out and trying to keep people renting their DVRs. Makes allot of sense since they are squeezing $25 a month from the 2 DVRs I have from them now.

 

I would have let her know that every time they extort $50 from you for providing a substandard product that you would be reporting them to the Better Business Bureau, the local franchise authority, and the FCC. It's OK for the cable monopolies to need some time to get up to speed on cablecard (I guess 2 years hasn't been enough), but telling people they're going to charge if a product they co-developed breaks is simply unacceptable.

 

Question for Cox Las Vegas folks. Are you able to get the digital simulcast of the analog channels with the cablecards? I'm moving to Vegas in January, and if I can't get the digital simulcast channels with the cablecards I'm thinking of just building a MythTV box and going analog cable and the free QAM channels (I don't want or need any of the premium channels).

 

Just got my first bill. As I feared, they are charging me the "Digital Gateway Outlet" fee for $7.95 each plus the CableCARD rental fee of $1.99. This is not kosher as their own crappy DVR has dual tuner functionality and they don't charge the additional outlet fee for it.

Complained to the local franchise authority. Will let you know if anything comes of it.

As for the simulcast, how would I go about checking for that?

 

I don't have the Series3 yet, so here's a guess. Any digital channel or tuner shouldn't allow you to set the recording quality. So if Cox is doing digital simulcast of all the channels *and* if the cablecard is mapping the analog channel numbers to the digital ones, then you shouldn't have any option to set the recording quality.

Of course if you can set the recording quality it might just mean I don't know what I'm talking about.

 

Just what is a "digital gateway"? Can they show me one? If I sign up for any level of service, I can tune to channel X and see that service is there that I'm paying for. I just want to know WTF this digital gateway is that I will be paying for. (I wonder what would they give me if I called and said "I want the digital gateway" and then refused any other services...)

 

pkscout -

There are definitely channels that do have that option and some that don't. For sure, the HD channels do not have the option to change recording quality. I'll double check to see if the digital channels have the option. Pretty sure that the lower analog channels have the option.