Self-Install of Cable Cards?

Many have installed their own cards, although some companies do not allow it, or allow it only in some areas. Install instructions came with your TiVo, and are also available on the TiVo website. Installation is easy, but you do need to follow the instructions. After each card is installed, a call to the cable company will initialize the card.

 

Consider yourself extremely lucky, too! Most of us had to deal with a truck roll to get the cards, and then got the added bonus of the installer messing up the provisioning.

 

I agree--consider yourself lucky.

I had the singular experience of having the Comcast guy come with the cards, be surprised that I knew they were multi-stream cards ("is that different from what we used to have?") and then ask ME to install them since it was clear I was more familiar with them.

So for the lovely experience of installing my own cable cards, I got to PAY $15 for installation.

 

Yeah, I can also confirm the foolish nature of a truck roll install. I specifically told the customer service rep over the phone that I needed 2 S-Cards, and only 1 showed up. Luckily another installer was nearby and had another card for us. After pointing to the floor next to my TV stand, the installer looked at the front of my Playstation 3 to find a cable card slot! I politely corrected him, put my hand on the nearby Series 3 and said "on the Series 3, the cable cards are located in the back." After plugging a card into slot 1 (directed by me), the card information appeared on the TV. The installer said "wow, I have never seen that before." We then dictated a list of numbers to a man over the phone and inserted card 2. We repeated the process once again and were complete.

I only had to wait for 5 days for an install, but I surely could have done such an install myself, as I basically paid to tell an installer what to do.

Oh yeah, and he asked my why I didn't want the Comcast DVR in a rude tone. Trusted service, quality product, tivocommunity and excellent integration made it a no brainer, not to mention a MSD cheaper per month fee and all he had to say was "what about On Demand?" I almost laughed. Tivo is MY On Demand!!!

That being said, not everyone at Comcast is bad/worthless/rude/money hungry. I just haven't met one who isn't!

 

I got my local Comcast office to give me an M-Card, but once I called nobody had any idea how to activate it. I finally just had them roll a truck so the guy could get on the phone with someone who knew what they were doing.

 

That's why I requested 8 cablecards.

 

yeah, the only real solution is to work for them.. so you can terrorize from the inside...

 

I was able to pick up 2 s-cards from my local comcast office and install them myself. I am SUPER lucky as I also won the CSR lottery the first call and everything works perfectly. It's really easy to do as long as you get a CSR that knows what they're doing. Your part on the install consists of insert card, read numbers off the screen and enjoy. If they let you self install...do it!

 

How about the fact that the cable companys DVR puts out an image that looks like crap when compared to the Tivo. I've been having trouble getting my cable cards to work and have had 2 trouble calls since the original install. I figured I'd try out one of the Moto boxes to see what it looked like. No way I'm going to pay for that. Seriously if Cable Cards are such a nuisance why don't they come up with a decent alternative to the Tivo.