SDV - Charter Communications

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Good to hear that they've done your installs.

After calls on 02/10/10 and today (02/12/10), I think they're finally going to be ready to start doing install scheduling for the St. Louis county area. Supposedly, the equipment is their warehouses and the codes to set up the installs aren't in their computer yet, though should have been by now. From what I was told, the codes should be in the computer this evening, worst case tomorrow.

So, once that gets done, I'll be setting up my install for my five Tivo's and hopefully stay ahead of the curve. Like you said, they're probably going to be out of them starting when they flip the switch, so I'd rather go through this foolishness ahead of time before it becomes an issue.

 

<Apologies for the cross post in the pixelation thread. Just not sure if belongs there or under this one.>

On my Tivo HD, I get a lot of pixelation on just a couple of channels: SyFy HD and Cartoon Network HD. On Charter here in CT, I believe both are SDV channels. SyFy is almost watchable (and I don't just mean 'Mansquito III: Death from the Cesspool').

I have checked SyFy live and still see pixelation, exactly the same as what I see recorded...and I never see any errors (corrected or uncorrected) while it is live. I keep the signal strength between 87 and 93 on most channels, and SNR is usually around 35dB (never higher).

I don't get pixelation on any other channels. On those channels where I see a few errors (such as Home & Garden), the picture is perfect. Go figure.

Last November, I replaced the internal hard drive to help deal with this (a 1TB Western Digital, *exact* same hard drive used in Tivo XL) and got rid of my DVR Expander, but other than spending a lot of time and money, it did nothing for this issue.

Two days ago, I called Charter and they replaced the Tuner Adapter just in case. Pixelation is still going strong on SyFy. The technician swears it is not in the source, and I have been seeing this problem since last June when I first got the Adapter.

 

I'm in the Granite City / Pontoon Beach area. Had my two Motorola TA's installed last week (two service calls after the first tech only brought one, typical Charter). First tech couldn't the TA to obtain an IP address. Second tech had both TA's refreshed by his counter part on the phone (the Charter mother-ship, I call it). Then both TA's obtained IP's and seem to be functioning correctly. Who knows when Charter is flipping the SDV switch in the Metro East?

 

I had a Charter tech at my house this morning as I was having trouble receiving Discovery HD and HD Theatre.

He told me that certain channels are more susceptible to signal issues than others. I don't know about your situation, but in mine the problematic channels were in the 77x range; I don't know if that is the actual channel number, or a remapped "virtual" channel.

Interestingly, he noted that the reason for the problems I have had with cable all these years was the way my particular unit was wired. My townhouse complex is two buildings. The main cable feed goes into the other building and is divided up five ways, one for each unit. But rather than send two feeds from that splitter through the pipe beneath the driveway to each unit in my building (mine and my immediate next door neighbor), whoever wired the place used only ONE cable which is then split when it gets to my building.

Even worse, per him the cable in the pipe beneath the driveway is NOT rated for underground use, and he feels that it has degraded significantly in the 3 decades since the complex was built.

For now he replaced a corroded connector and used a different type of splitter (for some reason the previous tech used a 3 way, not a 2 way, even though only 2 feeds were needed) to help improve the signal. He also contacted the local Charter office to have different techs come out and replace the cable beneath the driveway, and if possible to try to get two individual feeds rather than one.

 

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Anyone heard anything new about the SDV deployment? I think I am going to call Charter today. I would love to know what the new channels are going to be.

 

From the last conversation I had with anyone in the know, the whole SDV deployment is being delayed, and there's no ETA of when it's going to happen.

This was from a supervisor that called me last week when I was asking about when I could get my TAs ordered and installed.

 

Hey shrike4242 I recenctly had Charter install 2 SDV boxes and I am in the St. Louis area. Both of my boxes are still blinking amber and neither have an IP address. Just curious if yours are up and running yet. I think they are not ready to go yet

 

I spoke to them yesterday, they are still clueless as ever. Mine are still blinking amber also. However, I was able to get the new channel lineup out of them. I started out asking the customer service agent if there was a new one available, and by the end of the call, I had told him where to find the PDF on his own website. As I predicted, it isn't much to get excited about, at least in Metro East it sucks.

WE NOW GET C-SPAN 3!!! YES!!! I had been waiting SO LONG FOR IT!!!

I knew this would end up happening with them. They are going to add a new technology which they will inevitably have problems with, and it will end up making the channels I actually do watch less available and stable because you can bet those tuning adapters will wig out once every so often and then my Tivo will miss a recording because of it... Then I will be PISSED!!!

-Rob

 

When the Tech was at my house he was telling me how alot of houses have physical filters on their lines at the box. It filters out certain channel ranges. Since Charter is re-arranging the existing channels, they are having to visit many homes to remove the filter because it will start to block existing channels.

P.S. Don't fill up your DVR with that new CSPAN3 content

 

I don't have them yet. They keep saying that they have their heads up their backsides about when it'll get done, so if you have yours, I may have to call and try to get the installs done again.

 

*Apologies if this seems like a uncalled for RANT /

They're idiots... They really don't care that much about their own network, They've actually got nationwide SNMP Strings which is so insecure! Not to mention multiple issues on their network, and reps and csrs that don't even have a clue what most of the things they need to know are...
They don't want to spend much on their own network let alone "secure" it even better than it is right now... They feel like they're not responsible to incur costs due to people committing ToS on their network, I know this due to the fact I've done several cable modems up for people with 3rd party firmwares / to help them diagnosis issues within their network setup. So now I'm pretty much being held accountable for their own stupidity and ignorance.Due to what some shady customers of mine did... I've ceased programming modems with 3rd party firmwares and stopped doing business in this town as I cannot afford to be held accountable for what my customers do with thier finished product... I mean WTF are they gonna come after me if someone kills someone w/ a modded Wii or what?!
They're demanding 50k each modem they find in the system that's deemed to be "cloned" or stealing service... Even tho it wouldn't be hard at all to rid the network of these devices that users have apparently abused and used purely for ToS, right from the console at the CMTS / Headend, by just ENFORCING BPI+, tho wouldn't you think they owe it to their customers to do better and secure their network from malicious acts such as this? I mean these users are out there hoggin and raping resources off their network which I'm sure is causing some issues for legitimate subscribed users.. As well not enough bandwidth to go around one nodes that have a couple hacked modems on there. So yeah expect crappy quality HD Shows and crap to be recorded to your TiVo.

Seriously I urge everyone with a account at Charter to look elsewhere for service after their attitude towards their own network management skill as well trouble of servicing TiVo owners which I'm pretty sure is totally because they just spite us TiVo owners since they cannot rape us with their DVR Devices and charges...

 

I agree and would love to get rid of Charter, however, realistically, if I want to keep my HD TiVo, I don't have much of an option. Can't go Sat with HD TiVo, Can't go U-Verse. Unfortunately, they pretty well have me by the ....

 

hehe I know how you feel... I feel the same way but refused to let them hold me like that so I went on to Dish but now I'm feeling really really lousy cause Charter is looking good atm with the fact I could record 2 shows and still watch LIVE TV while they were recording but on Dish I'm restricted to just recording shows and no watching LIVE tv while a recording is going on cause the Dish DVR ties up our TVs while recording a show....

Really wish Comcast would just come in and take over... But doesn't look like it's gonna happen anytime soon in this town as the Charter here isn't franchised but privately owned...

 

Well, it looks like SDV is becoming unreliable for me as well. At first, what few problems I had I thought it might be related to "peak period" watching since it tended to occur around dinnertime on certain weekdays. However, it's slowly gotten worse, and as of midnight tonight I am unable to tune several channels, both SD and HD

As much as I loved having TiVo over the last 9 years, I simply cannot accept this any longer, especially since Charter also decided to implement copy-once flags on many of the channels, thus negating TiVo's biggest advantage over other DVR's (TTG)

So I have scheduled a U-verse install for next week. I still have 6 months left on my 3 year contract but I can still use it with OTA along with Amazon, Netflix, etc.

If U-verse doesn't work out for some reason, I also got a flyer with my AAA magazine showing a $19.99 offer from DirecTV for AAA members for 12 months, and only $24.99 for 12 months (including a free HD DVR Upgrade AND a free 2nd HD receiver) if I go with their Choice Extra package. If/when the much-discussed DirecTV/TiVo reunion happens, I'll dump U-verse and go with DirecTV.

 

A couple of Points here. If the DirectTV/TiVo reunion happens, you will not be able to use your retail TiVo. It will be a DirectTV DVR running TiVo software. Secondly, my understanding is that it will be more like TiVo Lite. Not full featured. No Internet Video downloads, no saving shows to/from PC, etc...

In Regards to UVerse, it is important to know that once you switch to UVerse you will get an IP phone. No more hard land line. No power, no phone. I did not like that prospect. I was always comforted in the fact that if AI lost power, I always had a phone. Maybe that is old school.

 

@RonDawg: Which market are you in?

I am in St. Louis, and so help me god, if they flip the switch on the CCI byte to prevent TTG transfers when they launch SDV, I am DONE.

Right now, none of the flags are set, and I can transfer anything I want from my Tivo to my PC.

The problem is, I am heavily invested in CableCard between my 3 Tivos and my 3 Windows PCs with CableCard tuners. I really enjoy not needing a box, especially in the kitchen with an HP all-in-one that is wall mounted.

My fear is that this Tivo announcement on 3/2 is going to be more of the same BS from Tivo & DirecTV, where we get a new HD Tivo for DirecTV, but it will be crippled. Actually, that is an understatement.

Right now, I am pleased with the Series 3. I can transfer shows, and I have my TV connected via HDMI. This enables me to also use the component outputs for my Slingbox. If I recall correctly on the original DirecTV HD Tivo, component was disabled when you used HDMI (when HDMI actually worked).

Thanks,

-Rob

 

I am aware that my TiVoHD will not be able to be used with anything other than OTA and cable. That is why for the remaining 6 months of my 3 year contract, I plan on using it for OTA and also for Amazon/Netflix etc. For the first month I also plan on simultaneously recording programs on it and on my new U-verse box to compare picture quality.

I am also aware that if the new DirecTiVo implementation is anything like the old, I will not get all of the features of the standalone TiVo models. However, current DirecTV boxes offer their own version of Video on Demand, and I understand that MRV may be (or already has been) enabled with them. I probably won't get TTG, but Charter has largely broken that with their copy flags anyway.

As far as Amazon/Netflix, again I will have my TiVoHD for those duties for the next six months. If TiVo lets me have that $99 Lifetime upgrade (I bought my TiVoHD just before it became available) I will continue to use it; otherwise my PS3 can do Netflix and my Panasonic Viera plasma can do Amazon.

In addition to the SDV unreliability and the inability to use MRV/TTG due to copy flags, U-verse, DirecTV, and DishNetwork have more channels in HD than my local Charter affiliate. So I am getting the worst of both worlds; the unreliability of SDV without the benefit of added HD channels.

I already have U-verse Internet and Phone and have been very pleased with them so that's why I am giving them first shot at my business as a TV provider. I am aware of the downsides of VoIP but U-verse does give you a UPS for their Residential Gateway (their modem/router/wireless access point) in case of a power outage.

It's not true that U-verse automatically means you give up your POTS phone; a friend of mine who has U-verse Internet and TV still has his POTS line. I had to give up POTS because I could not get Internet alone and I still wanted to use my TiVoHD and thus could not use their TV service.

Once I get TV (and presuming I am happy with the service) I could theoretically ask them to remove the Voice service and go back to POTS, but of course I will incur an installation charge as if I moved to a new place. But I am actually quite happy with their Voice service and the features it gives me over POTS.

 

I'm with you on this. I like having a traditional landline along with a corded phone for emergencies. However, I was talking to an AT&T rep recently about switching to U-verse, and, according to him, the AT&T IP phone service includes a battery backup that lasts for several hours in the event of a power outage and allows you to make calls during that time. It sounds like they've heard the concern many of us have about losing phone service when the power goes out and have developed a workaround solution. I don't have U-verse yet myself, but that certainly made the idea of switching away from Charter a much more viable option for me.

 

I am in Southern California.

Prior to SDV, the only channel that I get that was consistently copy-flagged was Smithsonian. I do not subscribe to HBO, Cinemax, etc. but I would presume those are as well.

Occasionally a show here and there would show up as flagged; for example, when American Chopper would be aired on HD Theater, it would be flagged. A few other Discovery Network shows would be flagged as well, but not all of them.

Post-SDV, all the Discovery Networks are flagged, including HD Theater, and even the SD channels like Science and Military.

 

Anybody heard any news about the SDV in STL. My tuner is still sitting there blinking away...