[Dr_Zoidberg]

Well...so far, so bad.

-8/1
I picked up my TiVoHD, and immediately called Cablevision to schedule an appointment. After getting passed from the initial rep to someone who understood, the earliest date I could get was 8/8, at the 8-11 slot.

-8/8.

I'm the first appointment of the installer. He comes with two cards (normally he would have more), and starts the process. Almost immediately after calling the office, he's informed that the office had a problem with the cable card backend software, and can't get past the "blue page" to enter in the card information. The person in the back office said they had to wait for someone to come into the office to reset their software, and that person would be in by 9AM. Naturally, the guy is a no-show, and the tech is with me at just before 10 trying to reschedule my appointment for tomorrow. In the meantime, the tech went out to his van to pull another card from the next install. Turns out the cards for me are dated 3/2006 and the other card was from 2005.

The installer told me other installers are having the same issue today - so the problem is with the backend software and not on my end. After going back and forth with his people, I'm rescheduled for tomorrow. If the problem is cleared up today, he may be back.

It just goes to show, it's always something, as Roseanne Rosannadanna used to say.

 

[Chimpware]

Hey where in NJ are you? I have a Cablevision Tech coming today to troubleshoot pixelation issue in Bridgewater NJ.

 

[Dr_Zoidberg]

Hey where in NJ are you? I have a Cablevision Tech coming today to troubleshoot pixelation issue in Bridgewater NJ.

Piscataway, so we're probably on the same "circuit".

However, the guy they were waiting for is probably able to reset whatever the problem is. lease keep me posted if things work out or not.

 

[tgmii]

After their second unsuccesful trip, I called up and said I needed to reinitialize the cablecards (after having swapped out the tivo). I was expecting an arguement, but they realized that I was capable of reading numbers off my screen and speaking them into the phone, in order.

Why they can't just give out the cards at the walk-in center is a whole separate rant. My cable bills are high because cablevision insists on rolling a truck for stuff that doesn't require it..

Roll a truck for the non-techie who doesn't want to deal with it (Just fix it!), but give me the cards, don't roll a truck, do not pass go, do not collect $46!

Tom

 

[dbenrosen]

For my $46 I forced them to come out 5 times, wasting more than 20 hours of tech, CSR and head-end tech person time each, which ended up costing them WAY more than the $46 I paid. Sure it wasted my time as well, but they lost. Finally I got it fixed when I got a direct number from a contact at the yahoo cablevision forums (not Wilt, someone else). This was about a year ago with my S3. This all could have been avoided if they would just give me the cards at a walk-in center. The last time I spoke with them back in December they were updating the software to eliminate many of the pairing problems and possibly make it an installation without a truck roll. I guess they never got to that point.

 

[Dr_Zoidberg]

Apparently not.

This afternoon around 1PM I was very surprised - the installer returned, and they had worked out the back office software issue. He came back with the same cards, and after about a 45 minute session, I'm good to go with both tuner cards. I've noticed some of the pixelation problems others have, but they are intermittent, for now.



Now, I just have to work out setting up my Harmony 880 remote, as I'm keeping my original S2 with Lifetime Service as well. I just tried to get them to transfer it to the new box, but they won't. Instead, I committed to a 3 year service at $6.95 a month.

 

[Dr_Zoidberg]

Oh yeah, and the TiVo guy was going on how TV makers are stopping making cable-card ready TVs....right

 

[Morfious]

I was wondering if anyone else had issues with HBO particularly channels 304,305. I live in central NJ (No. Brunswick) and have had problems with these channels since the install. On my television (which has a cable card as well) these channels will work just fine and play as expected. When I try to tune the channel with my S3 I get a picture for about 1-2 seconds and then I get the black and gray Call your cable company screen that you see when you tune in a non existent channel. Trying to figure out if it's a Cablevision problem or a S3 Tivo Problem.

Customer service is horrible. I had to tell the guy he needed a splitter to hook up both the TV and the Tivo (he seemed to believe that the cable signal would somehow pass through the HDMI cable and allow me to watch TV while the Tivo was recording 2 shows). I told him I needed 2 cable cards in the Tivo, 1 in the back of my TV and a cable splitter to get it working. After 2 hours, 3 different cables he did what I wanted (and he still tried to take the cable card that was in the back of my TV) "Oh you wanted that too?" YES!! Don't just take stuff out of my house at random.