SDV - Charter Communications

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Tech called and asked if all I needed was the tuning adapter... I said yep, thinking it would be a quick job. His reply was "We aren't doing those in Long Beach yet, probably not until the end of October sometime."

So much for the letter I got 3 months ago saying the adapters needed to be installed by some date mid-October I think. Didn't keep the letter. I guess once channels disappear I'll know it's time to get the adapter?

 

10 minutes? Wow, I had mine (2 of them) installed this past Saturday (Oct 10) and it took the guy 6 hours!

He was at my place from 8am to 2pm, most of the time was spent waiting on the phone on hold with the central office.

Apparently no one know why they weren't working and they had to track down the corect people to look into it, it turns out there was a code entered incorrectly into the system.

They've both been working fine since then, and I haven't had any issues or noticed any difference in either picture quality or how the TiVo operates.

I was a little worried, but personally, I don't think the Cisco boxes are bad looking at all, plain black and unobtrusive, definitely better looking than the Motorolas.

It could have been a lot worse and been some ugly grey plastic thing with the front curved into some sort of wavy shape, I don't know who designs cable boxes but someone needs to tell them they should blend in with stereo equipment and not look like a videogame consoles designed for 12 year olds.

 

I agree that the Cisco tuning adaptor is not as obnoxious as it could've been, but it still is unfortunate that we basically need to have a cable box sitting on top of another cable box. I must've been really lucky with my install. They didn't even need to make a phone call. Communication with the home office was all handled by what appeared to be a web interface on the tech's smart phone.

As far as functionality, I don't believe Charter is actually activating switched digital video for customers in the Glendale area until today (Oct. 13) at the earliest. So, who knows what'll happen once this adaptor is really necessary.

I know my adaptor has spontaneously restarted a half a dozen times over the past week and a half. I haven't noticed it the past couple of days, but, prior to that, I would walk by and see the box blinking and then the TiVo message would come up informing me that I now have a tuning adaptor connected. I'm hoping that won't become a regular "feature" of this adaptor once it's in everyday use.

 

I haven't noticed any restarts. You're right though, the real test will be go live.

 

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Is there a way to tell when you're watching a channel over SDV?

 

Called the 888# and the rep stated that she had no info on when SDV is coming to this area and that the equipment isn't installed yet, there for I can't get the adapter installed yet. I saw mention that M-cards were required for this to work? is this true I asked the rep and she said I could just bring the S-cards to the office and they would swap them there. Don't want to do this unless I have to.

 

I had mine TA installed the first week of August after a hiccup where they sent an untrained contract installer instead of a trained in-house installer. I moved from Pasadena to Altadena a couple of weeks ago and it was a simple as taking the hardware with me to the new place.

The problems I've had with it is that on occasion, Charter sends reprogramming info and/or the SDV control stream dies, and when that happens, it 'resets' the TiVo and brings up the "You've got a tuning adapter installed" screen and kills any recordings that may be going on. Fortunately they usually only occur overnight, and once the SDV control stream is stable, scheduled recordings occur normally even if the "You've got a tuning adapter installed" screen is up.

That is until last night. They decided to do it during prime time. Over 90 minutes of alternating blinking then steady then blinking SDV box. There were at least 15 resets on the SDV box. Killed at least one recording. I eventually pulled the USB connection between the SDV box and the TiVo so I could at least watch live.

Hey TiVo! Get rid of the "You've got an TA installed" screen and the corresponding reset.

--Carlos V.

 

got my ta on saturday installed to work with my tivo s3 with no problems, though i did notice i was missing at least 1 channel (and it wasn't even an hd channel). then today, the green light started blinking. i called tech support and they had absolutely no idea what to do. so a tech is scheduled for tomorrow. i think i'll ask for the number that the techs call to sync up the devices. tech support is absolutely useless. i have charter communications in southern california.

 

I couldn't agree more. This happens to me almost daily and the part that really sucks is that when you're in the middle of watching a recorded program, it forgets where you were. So when you navigate back to your program, rather than being able to resume playing, it just starts you over from the beginning. I hate this.

 

For the SoCal Charter subscribers, what channel(s) were added when you got a Tuning Adapter, or were switched to SDV?

I haven't gotten mine yet, and yet I am still receiving the channels that I have always had. I don't want to go through the hassles of a Tuning Adapter if the channels I like to watch aren't on SDV.

 

Added: None.

Switched to SDV? I don't know. All the techs I've talked to as of 2 weeks ago say SDV hasn't been enabled yet. Did you lose any? Since you haven't, then they probably still haven't switched.

--Carlos V.

 

I live in an area served by Charter's Alhambra office. It was a real pain to get a tuning adapter installed, but now that I have it, it seems to work ok. based on comments here I was expecting some huge box, but it is actually not too bad. It fits on a shelf right next to my hard drive.

Getting the thing was a pain. 3/4 of Charter's customer service people have never heard of SDV or the tuning adapter, and even after you find one who does, when they schedule the installation you most likely will get some random contractor who a) doesn't know what SDV is, and b) doesn't have a tuning adapter anyway.

After several false starts (appointment where the guy never showed up, appointment with clueless guy who couldn't do anything, etc.) i finally got an actual Charter employee (as opposed to the usual contractors who can only install cable boxes) who managed to actually bring a tuning adapter with him.

He hooked it up and got it working w/o too much trouble (although he was on hold with their dispatch people for a long time until he could give them some info). But then we ran into a couple of problems:

1) Activating the tuning adapter deauthorized the cable box in another room. Wacky, huh? But apparently that's normal for the Alhambra Charter office, because he asked us to check any cable boxes in our house right away because he'd seen that happen before when installing tuning adapters. I'm glad he had us check, or we wouldn't have noticed until after he left.

2) It also deauthorized our cable cards. This was a much bigger problem. he repeatedly had the dispatch people try to hit the cards, but one of them just wouldn't get authorized, and even the one which was authorized didn't get all the channels.

The dispatch people had him swap the cable card in slot 1 with the one in slot 2 (a bad idea, given what I've read here before) and re-read the host IDs to him. Now both cards were unauthorized, and failed to get many channels at all. (But continued to get the HD versions of HBO and Showtime. go figure.) He had clearly never seen an original Series 3 TiVo (I had to tell him that the cards were in the back) but I guess he must have dealt with TiVo HD models, because he was pretty comfortable with the TiVo interface.

He decided that i needed new cablecards. Well, that obviously wasn't good. And of course he didn't have any on the truck. So we had to wait 40 minutes or so for someone else to show up with a couple of cards.

But once he put the new cards in (and then waited on hold with dispatch again for 20 minutes so they could hit the new cards) everything worked fine.

Last night the SDV tuning adapter and new cablecards worked just fine. Hopefully it stays that way.

I managed to crash my TiVo when playing with the tuning adapter's diagnostics menu (I hit page down on the remote out of habit, and apparently you shouldn't do that while on that screen) but after a reboot it worked fine.

 

oh, and to clarify, the alhambra office started moving channels to SDV at the beginning of October. (September 29 was the official date, but I didn't notice any until a few days later.) I was out of town for a week, and couldn't get the installation scheduled before my trip (mostly due to clueless people at Charter's customer support line), which is why I didn't get it installed sooner ...

At first it was only a few channels (G4 was the first that I noticed) but starting this week most of the non-broadcast digital channels are on SDV. I had a series of appointments over the past week to get the tuning adapter installed, and only some very careful juggling of shows between SD and HD feeds (because usually one would move to SDV while the other didn't) kept me from missing most shows during this time. I missed Californication on Sunday when all the Showtime feeds moved to SDV, but now I've got it scheduled to record later in the week, so I should be ok.)

 

tim1724. I'm glad to see I'm not crazy. I believe I'm also served by Alhambra (we're in Pasadena) and have the exact same issue.

I had the tuning adapters installed in early September on both our Series 3 TiVos.

We don't watch a lot of live TV and had a huge backlog, so I didn't notice at the time that we were missing some channels. I'm not entirely sure we were missing them, though, and something may have happened since thin.

After some experimenting earlier this month, I figured out that 3 out of 4 of my CableCards are partially deauthorized. The partial deauthorization is the part I don't understand. We're missing:

- Cinemax (both HD and non-HD)
- DiscoveryHD
- ESPN (HD 1 and 2)
- Palladia
- UHD

Yet, I still get HBO and HDNet and a couple others in our packages.

Still waiting on a CableCard appointment. Hopefully, that will clear all this up.

Anyone have any insights as to whether this whole effort to switch to SDV will result in us seeing any new channels?

 

I was told by the Charter techs that installed my tuning adaptor in Glendale, CA that there would definitely be new channels added to the lineup. The whole reason for rolling out SDV is to make more bandwidth available for additional channels. However, it sounded like it would be a few months before any new stuff would show up, and the techs had no idea what channels would be added.

For now, however, none of my channels in Glendale are being switched. I don't receive the Digital View package, but the tuning adaptor is currently unnecessary for the Expanded and Basic (Digital and HD), Digital and HD Premium, HD Ultra View, and Music packages.

It seems like Charter is all over the place with its deployment of SDV in the Los Angeles area. So, as for new channels, I'm not holding my breath that they'll arrive by the end of the year.

 

Got the letter from Charter Long Beach, needed adaptor by Oct.
After going through the online help and three calls to Charter (none of them had heard of the tuning adaptor and told me Tivo would have to provide it) I got an appointment for install. I have had three appointments now, all to have a guy show up and not know what I was talking about. I called again, went through two reps (first put me on hold and hung me up) and talked to a install tech. He made me an appointment. Again, a guy shows up and knows nothing about an adaptor. Made another call, took over a half hour for them to find out what I was talking about and set up an install appointment. That day, when the time came, they call me and tell me they are not installing them yet, and to wait until the end of the year.
Please Fios, come to my area soon.

 

This is my experience also in Long Beach. I am being told different things by different reps. One rep says they ran out of adapters, another says they never had them in the first place. Most of them have no idea what I am even talking about. One of them even suggested I just give up my TIVO and go with a Charter box. I am up to 4 cancelled appointments now. To top it off all my channels 32 and above stopped working tonight. Pay channels, etc... I was assured by the last rep who canceled the last appointment (it was for this afternoon) that this would not happen.

 

Series III TiVo with two cable cards.

Got the letter in August that warned we had to get the Tuning Adapter installed before October 13. Scheduled an install August 7th. Befuddled tech looks at the letter and says, "Oh we don't have those yet. Try us in September."

Called in September – got scheduled for October 2nd install of Tuning Adapter. They come to set it up.

A few weeks pass. Then we'd get "a tuning adapter has been detected" prompt every few minutes. Did the verification and re-boot routine.

Finally called to get the thing serviced.

Charter tech shows up today and says, "Charter didn't even have you listed as having a Tuning Adapter. Lemme set it up for you."

Says it's fixed.

Half an hour after he leaves, the same "a tuning adapter has been detected" prompt comes back. Re-booted both the TA and the TiVo. Still happening.

Called Charter just now to get a tech back out here. Was told a supervisor would handle the repair. This will be the FOURTH visit since getting the letter.

As someone else on this thread put it, "How does a business like this stay in business?"

 

After 2 service appointments I am told that cable cards are basically dead in Long Beach and the adapter is needed for Tivos to work now. I don't really beleive them, but what can I do? The only problem is the adapters will not be available until January. I was told I can either wait it out and just plug my cable straight to my tv to get basic channels or "upgrade" to a charter DVR. I told them I would rather just wait it out. The rep on the phone said if I drop the Cablecard off at their office they will stop charging me. After this experience I am seriously considering looking into DirectTV.