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sptnut
I have Comcast in Knoxville. I also have a Tivo Vox with 2 Tivo Vox minis, all connected via ethernet. In the past few days I have lost the ability to get the Cooking Channel in HD, but still can get it in SD. I have heard a little about some channels moving to IP channels, which apparently Tivo can't see. Is there a way to find out what channels are IP channels with Comcast? Is there a work around if this has moved to an IP channel.
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osu1991
Cooking Channel - Official Site

login with tv everywhere credentials and watch online via computer or streaming device
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JoeKustra
sptnut said:
I have Comcast in Knoxville.
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Call your local office and ask them.
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sptnut said:
I have Comcast in Knoxville. I also have a Tivo Vox with 2 Tivo Vox minis, all connected via ethernet. In the past few days I have lost the ability to get the Cooking Channel in HD, but still can get it in SD. I have heard a little about some channels moving to IP channels, which apparently Tivo can't see. Is there a way to find out what channels are IP channels with Comcast? Is there a work around if this has moved to an IP channel.
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Check your monthly bill under "Additional Information" each month Comcast lists the channels that are going IP only for the HD version in the next month. The Cooking Channel is one of those channels.

Also the channel list on the Comcast Web Site for our area has the footnote 2 next to the IP only channels but I do not know how often that is updated.

So far in the Houston TX area about 30 HD channels are IP only however I very rarely watched any of them so, in my case, they are not missed. Still it is frustrating to not be able to receive them with the TiVo.

As far a a workaround there is not any with the TiVo that I know of. Here are some of the ways you can get the HD picture using different hardware

1. You can stream the channels to your computer or tablet and cast it to your TV but from my experience you will probably get a better picture just watching the SD version.

2. You can rent an X1 box from Comcast.

3. Lookup the Xfinity stream app on the Comcast Web site. It lists all the devices that will receive the Xfinity streaming app. If you own or purchase any of these devices they will receive the IP only HD channels.
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sptnut
Paw Paw said:
Check your monthly bill under "Additional Information" each month Comcast lists the channels that are going IP only for the HD version in the next month. The Cooking Channel is one of those channels.
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I have gone back and looked at every bill since Dec 2019, there are no notifications in this sections about IP channels.
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sptnut said:
I have gone back and looked at every bill since Dec 2019, there are no notifications in this sections about IP channels.
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I guess every Comcast area has separate policies about this. here is an excerpt from my August 2020 Comcast Bill under th "Additional Information" section.

"Beginning August 25, 2020, Zona Futbol (ch.3491), Zona Futbol HD (ch.1228),
POP (ch.1427), Ovation (ch.1462), CSPAN (ch.1128), DIY (ch.1493), and
Cooking Channel (ch.1485) will be available in HD IP. Customers will need an IPcapable
device (e.g., Xfinity X1) in order to view these channels"
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sptnut
Paw Paw said:
I guess every Comcast area has separate policies about this. here is an excerpt from my August 2020 Comcast Bill under th "Additional Information" section.

"Beginning August 25, 2020, Zona Futbol (ch.3491), Zona Futbol HD (ch.1228),
POP (ch.1427), Ovation (ch.1462), CSPAN (ch.1128), DIY (ch.1493), and
Cooking Channel (ch.1485) will be available in HD IP. Customers will need an IPcapable
device (e.g., Xfinity X1) in order to view these channels"
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Odd, I still get all of these channels but the Cooking Channel.
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sptnut said:
I have gone back and looked at every bill since Dec 2019, there are no notifications in this sections about IP channels.
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The wording on the bills always seemed interesting, and apparently the terms used depending on market and when the bill was sent out. Some of the changes used the word/term IP. Some only used phrases such as "compatible equipment required" (without even mentioning X1 or IP).

For better or worse, Comcast is freeing bandwidth for HSI, and they appear to be mostly choosing to select the new offerings, and channels that are perceived to have low viewership numbers earlier in the process (there are exceptions for every generality, of course). Apparently in your market the Cooking Channel HD is not sufficiently popular to justify using linear QAM.
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PSU_Sudzi
sptnut said:
Odd, I still get all of these channels but the Cooking Channel.
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It stinks and seems like an inevitable march to the end with us Comcast users and TiVo. Hopefully we get another couple of years as it seems unlikely there will be a fix.
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PSU_Sudzi said:
It stinks and seems like an inevitable march to the end with us Comcast users and TiVo. Hopefully we get another couple of years ....
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It is all conjecture, but I expect it will be a slow march, until the final sprint. But Comcast has set themselves and their customers up for the transition as all new(er) boxes can handle IPTV so they are slowly reducing the impact of the sprint by reducing the number of boxes that would need to be dealt with. A "Dear Customer" letter to replace your box has been done before, and can be done again (I remember the analogue to digital transition box exchange, and then the mpeg 4 capable box exchange). They will (probably) need to be ready to offer aggressive STB/DVR discounts for existing CableCARD users, just like they offered free DTAs for a few years with the analogue removal.

As for timing, only Comcast would know what their original schedules might have been (pretty sure the pandemic reshuffled a bunch of dates, both near and far, for a lot of roll outs), but I would agree, it is inevitable. And it is all *our* fault, for wanting to watch what we want to watch, wherever, whenever, on the device we want to watch it. In some ways TiVo won the battle(s) to be first, or early, with such concepts, and they have lost the war (lots of competitors that are mostly good enough some of the time).

... as it seems unlikely there will be a fix.
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For there to be a fix would likely require TiVo doing something like exchanging their patent licensing with a Comcast license to use Comcast's IPTV technology (and then actually writing the code). I don't see that happening (of course, with enough thrust pigs fly just fine).
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PSU_Sudzi
CommunityMember said:
It is all conjecture, but I expect it will be a slow march, until the final sprint. But Comcast has set themselves and their customers up for the transition as all new(er) boxes can handle IPTV so they are slowly reducing the impact of the sprint by reducing the number of boxes that would need to be dealt with. A "Dear Customer" letter to replace your box has been done before, and can be done again (I remember the analogue to digital transition box exchange, and then the mpeg 4 capable box exchange). They will (probably) need to be ready to offer aggressive STB/DVR discounts for existing CableCARD users, just like they offered free DTAs for a few years with the analogue removal.

As for timing, only Comcast would know what their original schedules might have been (pretty sure the pandemic reshuffled a bunch of dates, both near and far, for a lot of roll outs), but I would agree, it is inevitable. And it is all *our* fault, for wanting to watch what we want to watch, wherever, whenever, on the device we want to watch it. In some ways TiVo won the battle(s) to be first, or early, with such concepts, and they have lost the war (lots of competitors that are mostly good enough some of the time).

For there to be a fix would likely require TiVo doing something like exchanging their patent licensing with a Comcast license to use Comcast's IPTV technology (and then actually writing the code). I don't see that happening (of course, with enough thrust pigs fly just fine).
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TiVo Ted (who is now gone) wrote that TiVo and Comcast were working on a solution for this but who knows where that is now with their focus on streaming now.
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morac
PSU_Sudzi said:
TiVo Ted (who is now gone) wrote that TiVo and Comcast were working on a solution for this but who knows where that is now with their focus on streaming now.
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They were working on this years ago prior to Tivo being bought out and prior to Tivo suing Comcast. Back when Tivo was more relevant. I doubt Tivo and Comcast are working together anymore.
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sptnut said:
I have gone back and looked at every bill since Dec 2019, there are no notifications in this sections about IP channels.
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There was a similar notice like this [email protected], regarding these same channels:
New HD Channels 8/25? - Comcast XFINITY TV | DSLReports Forums

As already mentioned, the one thing consistent about Comcast, IS it's lack of consistency overall; there ARE many differences between how Comcast runs things among their 3 core regions (Northeast, Central and West) & then even within their "sub-regions". In our sub-region (greater Chicago) when they either add &/or move a channel over to IP-only, it's usually stated on our bills & channel lineups "requires X1 or compatible customer device", which appears to be their nomenclature referring to a Roku, or on their streaming service.
As another example, our region already has had most of these HD channels in QAM, for quite sometime now - particularly DIY, Cooking, WGNA & CSPAN - plus others like Outdoor & Sportsman. However, I AM concerned that Comcast might possibly move some/all of these (HD channels) over to IP-only in our region. Other recent examples: couple regions recently got Disney Jr HD in IP-only, while ours & many others did NOT...but our region HAS had Disney XD in HD QAM for sometime, while others do not have it either in QAM or IP.

If you really want to find out EVERY channel on your particular system that has gone IP-only, best bet is to get a paper channel lineup from your local office. (yes, it IS very pathetic than in 2020, Comcast STILL to this day, can't figure out how to post a damn .pdf of these lineups online :rolleyes: ) As I noted, our paper lineups DO specifically indicate each & every IP-only channel on our system. (which by the time I get such a sheet, I already know what they are - but it does help for in the future, when I get a brain fart :D )
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PSU_Sudzi said:
TiVo Ted (who is now gone) wrote that TiVo and Comcast were working on a solution for this
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Yes, that is/was TiVo's official marketing statement. And technically that is likely true, as no one ever said they would not continue to talk. But marketing spin is not a solution (after all, according to marketing, consumers like the pre-roll ads and the TiVo+ channels, as being informative and insightful; again, technically, they probably can find someone who will say those things).

I have no doubt that TiVo has the technical expertise to be able to build an IPTV solution should the legal and licensing issues be resolved (after all, they build such IPTV solutions for their cable system operator boxes).
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dishrich said:
(yes, it IS very pathetic than in 2020, Comcast STILL to this day, can't figure out how to post a damn .pdf of these lineups online :rolleyes: )
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One *can* get *a* PDF of your local channel lineup by going to the local channel lineup page at Comcast and selecting Print (and then selecting save to PDF in whatever print dialog box your system makes available to you). On some random basis I create such a PDF for different use cases. But last I looked that listing did not include the identification of IPTV channels, making the PDF useless to identify this particular issue.
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Paw Paw said:
I guess every Comcast area has separate policies about this. here is an excerpt from my August 2020 Comcast Bill under th "Additional Information" section.

"Beginning August 25, 2020, Zona Futbol (ch.3491), Zona Futbol HD (ch.1228),
POP (ch.1427), Ovation (ch.1462), CSPAN (ch.1128), DIY (ch.1493), and
Cooking Channel (ch.1485) will be available in HD IP. Customers will need an IPcapable
device (e.g., Xfinity X1) in order to view these channels"
Click to expand...
I got the identical notice in my August bill, Roseville , CA
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PSU_Sudzi
morac said:
They were working on this years ago prior to Tivo being bought out and prior to Tivo suing Comcast. Back when Tivo was more relevant. I doubt Tivo and Comcast are working together anymore.
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I'm pretty sure Ted posted about it within the past year indicating the work was ongoing. Again no idea where it stands now.
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morac
PSU_Sudzi said:
I'm pretty sure Ted posted about it within the past year indicating the work was ongoing. Again no idea where it stands now.
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I believe that was in regard to a replacement for the lost VOD.

The joint IP solution was "announced" 6 years ago.

Comcast, TiVo May Ditch the CableCARD | Light Reading
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PSU_Sudzi
morac said:
I believe that was in regard to a replacement for the lost VOD.

The joint IP solution was "announced" 6 years ago.

Comcast, TiVo May Ditch the CableCARD | Light Reading
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Thanks for clarifying and that sounds correct. All of their VOD is on IP tho from my understanding so it would seem the same tech could be applied to channels as well right?
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4
CommunityMember said:
One *can* get *a* PDF of your local channel lineup by going to the local channel lineup page at Comcast and selecting Print (and then selecting save to PDF in whatever print dialog box your system makes available to you)
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Yes, I'm well aware of that 1/2-assed "version" of a local channel lineup sheet...sorry, but that doesn't cut it. When I've used it, it prints out errors re: channel placements in given packages, & leaves out other info, such as the topic at hand here, as well as a sub easily being able to see exactly what comes in all the various channel packages.
Here a copy of our latest one I just picked up last month. (sorry it's not clearer, but I had to keep the file size down in order to post these here...) As you can see, the channel lineup(s) of each package are clearly delineated, as well as the IP-only ones. (indicated by a "1" or "2" footnote) Comcast DOES, in fact, offer these same types of sheets for all their systems, (although I cannot with 100% certainty say all their systems clearly indicate the IP-only channels like our system is doing) & obviously, someone or something, HAD to create these sheets to hand out in their local offices, give to techs for new sub installs, or they do send them (usually once a year) with monthly invoices. (regardless if you're on paper or paperless billing, you normally would get it) So one would reason, since these ARE being created AND updated fairly regularly, they have to be keeping electronic copies of this somewhere in their system, no? Since this is obviously the case, there is absolutely NO earthly reason why these same, exact, sheets, cannot be easily available for download at anytime by subscribers...considering they DO, in fact, already make their local subscriber pricing sheets, available for download at anytime; NO reason these same sheets couldn't be done the same way.

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