[JCMAN]

Seems both Optimum and Comcast are saying a date in October related to CC.

Optimum is saying that all Scientific Atlanta CableCARDs will stop working in October due to the Nov 2024 date rollover bug, and they've strongly positioned towards IPTV streaming like Optimum Stream, Apple TV, mobile app, but renting Samsung STBs will be an option. They will not supply CableCARD from alternate manufacturers. In Optimum (Cablevision) territory where SA/Cisco cablecard is used, it's end of the line.

Comcast is saying October 24th they will no longer give new CableCARDs or replace existing ones when they go bad. That's a "if you want a new Cablecard, or your existing one goes bad & you want to exchange, too bad, so sad." It is not any end date for when existing CableCARDs activated in the field will stop working.

(Again, these things generally have coin cell batteries in them. I can't tell you if the batteries in whatever Comcast has on the shelf is better than what's in yours, but if your Comcast CableCARD is very old, you may consider trying to swap it before that date. I'm not sure if replacing the battery fixes the issue, or if/when the battery in the cablecard dies, volatile memory is wiped and it stops working. Even then, Comcast may refuse to pair cablecards not already paired after that date. It's hard to say how this policy will be enforced on the activation/pairing end beyond them saying they won't give out new/exchange the physical CableCards effective October 24th.)

 

[Torquer]

This is extremely depressing. Tivo has been the best technological product that I have ever used, and it just sad that we have to take a big step backward.

Does anyone know the exact date in October the CableCard will stop working on Optimum? The letter was not clear...is it October 1 or October 31? I just want to know how much time I have.

I am currently looking at Dish and their supposedly excellent DVR. We never watch any show live because we always skip over the commercials. A couple years ago, I had an Optimum cloud DVR when I initially needed a tuning adapter and Optimum didn't have any in stock. It was really terrible with a big delay between when you pushed a button and the DVR responded, so it was really frustrating trying to skip commercials. I do want to also explore YouTubeTV and Hulu but I fear their cloud DVRs will be equally poor at this task.

 

[Tony_T]

Does anyone know the exact date in October the CableCard will stop working on Optimum? The letter was not clear...is it October 1 or October 31? I just want to know how much time I have.

I've read that the date bug in the PowerKey Cablecard is "In November". I haven't seen an exact date. Optimum said October in the letter, but they may have just stated an earlier month that the Cablecard will no longer work.

 

[KevTech]

From that article Vanita apparently has a fix but it would cost the operators money so perhaps they decided they do not want to pay for this fix considering the number of users.

Vantiva is "very far along with having a solution" for PowerKEY devices that use CableCARDs, Potts said. He stressed that operators with PowerKEY boxes in the field that haven't been alerted to the issue should contact Vantiva as soon as possible.

"The beauty about a CableCARD is that it's disconnected from the host [set-top], so all you have to do is get a message to the CableCARD. There's a way to basically reengineer how some of the
things work within PowerKEY so that it can handle this rollover date."

Vantiva also indicated that such fixes won't be free.

 

[cwoody222]

From that article Vanita apparently has a fix but it would cost the operators money so perhaps they decided they do not want to pay for this fix considering the number of users.

That is exactly it.

 

[leeherman]

The letter is not an exhaustive list of everything they offer. Speak to them.

I called my local support number and they were less than helpful.

I questioned DVR options because I don't want only streaming, and was told to go to an Optimum store, which I will be doing today.

Meanwhile, I've already started moving my emails from my optimum.net email address to another to give me flexibility in case I want to go back to FIOS, but either way it looks like I'll be abandoning my four Tivo DVRs and Tivo Mini in the next month.

:-(

When I last spoke to someone at FIOS, months ago, the cost of cablecards was $10 EACH and I'd need four. I'm assuming they'll be phasing out cablecards eventually, so between their cost of cards and the inevitable phasing out it just doesn't pay to fight to keep the Tivos going, unfortunately.

 

[leeherman]

do you have more information ? calling them is always the last I want to do Their customer service is not the best in the world.
Thanks
Achim

You've got that right.

I called the other day and the rep couldn't tell me about any devices other than what was mentioned in the letter, so I'm off to an Optimum store to get more info.

 

[cwoody222]

I called my local support number and they were less than helpful.

I questioned DVR options because I don't want only streaming, and was told to go to an Optimum store, which I will be doing today.

Meanwhile, I've already started moving my emails from my optimum.net email address to another to give me flexibility in case I want to go back to FIOS, but either way it looks like I'll be abandoning my four Tivo DVRs and Tivo Mini in the next month.

:-(

When I last spoke to someone at FIOS, months ago, the cost of cablecards was $10 EACH and I'd need four. I'm assuming they'll be phasing out cablecards eventually, so between their cost of cards and the inevitable phasing out it just doesn't pay to fight to keep the Tivos going, unfortunately.

Fios has no stated plans for “phasing out”
Card support.

Could be tomorrow, could be years from now.

 

[rcliff]

I’m still running NDS cards. I know they warned the cards were being discontinued a few years ago but I figured I’d roll the dice and see how long they work for. I wonder if these are affected by this date bug and whether they’ll finally stop working in November.

 

[Tony_T]

I’m still running NDS cards. I know they warned the cards were being discontinued a few years ago but I figured I’d roll the dice and see how long they work for. I wonder if these are affected by this date bug and whether they’ll finally stop working in November.

Only Cisco/Scientific America Cablecard effected.

https://www.lightreading.com/cable-technology/time-warp-could-cause-millions-of-old-powerkey-set-tops-to-go-on-the-blink

 

[jamesthomasyap]

So for me, a tivo user for over 20 years with optimum, is this the end of my TiVo road?i

I am in the same boat. 20 years and 3 active Tivos and it looks like I am going to have to go with a streaming service. No way am I staying with Cablevision

 

[Tony_T]

Been a TiVo Bolt owner for 7 years.
Sad to say goodbye 😥

 

[Tony_T]

Been an Optimum customer for even longer (30 years!) Wow!
Decided to start the process, called Optimum, said I needed to cancel the TV package as the Cablecard will stop working soon. (I'll go with either YTTV or Hulu). Transferred to Customer Retention. Said I wanted to keep Internet and Phone. Was told that if I break the Bundle, I loose the Internet credit and the fee will double (45 to 90), and no offers available.
Only other option I have is T-Mobile WiFi Modem ($50/mo), so I picked up the Modem from my local T-Mobile. Was doubtful it would work as I'm in a congested area, but 'good' signal and 400Mbps / 20 Mbps so far so good.

T-Mobile has a 15 day test drive, so I'll see how it goes and maybe I'll be saying goodbye to Optimum as well.

 

[Player01]

I've read that the date bug in the PowerKey Cablecard is "In November". I haven't seen an exact date. Optimum said October in the letter, but they may have just stated an earlier month that the Cablecard will no longer work.

The date these cards will roll over is 11/24/24

 

[mskvarenina]

Only Cisco/Scientific America Cablecard effected.

https://www.lightreading.com/cable-technology/time-warp-could-cause-millions-of-old-powerkey-set-tops-to-go-on-the-blink

Are we sure it's only Cisco/SA cards? ChatGPT told me this earlier today...I have a Motorola M-Card

Yes, it's true that certain models of CableCARDs have a software limitation that could cause them to stop functioning in October 2024. This issue primarily affects the Motorola (now Arris) M-Card CableCARDs, which have a known expiration date embedded in their firmware. After this date, the CableCARDs will no longer be able to decrypt channels, rendering them effectively useless for cable TV services.
This limitation is due to a certificate expiration, and the issue is widely known among cable operators. Some cable companies are working on providing updates or replacing affected CableCARDs to prevent service interruptions for customers. If you rely on a CableCARD for your cable service, it would be wise to contact your cable provider to confirm whether your equipment is affected and what steps are being taken to address the issue.

 

[cwoody222]

Are we sure it's only Cisco/SA cards? ChatGPT told me this earlier today...I have a Motorola M-Card

Yes, it's true that certain models of CableCARDs have a software limitation that could cause them to stop functioning in October 2024. This issue primarily affects the Motorola (now Arris) M-Card CableCARDs, which have a known expiration date embedded in their firmware. After this date, the CableCARDs will no longer be able to decrypt channels, rendering them effectively useless for cable TV services.
This limitation is due to a certificate expiration, and the issue is widely known among cable operators. Some cable companies are working on providing updates or replacing affected CableCARDs to prevent service interruptions for customers. If you rely on a CableCARD for your cable service, it would be wise to contact your cable provider to confirm whether your equipment is affected and what steps are being taken to address the issue.

ChatGPT is wrong.

 

[cshilton]

My early Bolt has been acting up lately. After October, I'll connect it to my antenna and see if I can make it do OTA. If I can't, I'll just drop it. If I it works, I'll take it to my place up north, possibly with one of my Mini's and run it as OTA there until it breaks. I'll also lose my SiliconDust HDHomerunPrime since that's Cablecard too. Sadly, that will make watching Mets games in high def a little harder.

I've already shored up my MythTV Infrastructure. It will do for a while but as far as convenience goes, it's no replacement for TiVo. I'll do some additional work to turn that into a self-hosted streaming service, possibly behind Plex or JellyFin.

To quote Doctor Strange, for TiVo, I think that we are "in the Endgame now".

 

[PL1]

I'll connect it to my antenna and see if I can make it do OTA.

If you look at the Model Number, you can tell if it does OTA or not. Also, if it has 6 tuners, it is cable only.

 

[cshilton]

If you look at the Model Number, you can tell if it does OTA or not. Also, if it has 6 tuners, it is cable only.

Thanks, reading that page, it looks like my 4-tuner bolt will do Antenna. I'll test it down here and then move it and a Mini to my place up north.

 

[Steve1953]

This is probably the end of CableCARD support for all Optimum users with SA cablecards, although I'm waiting for a more public facing statement than the original letters.

Cablevision went with two conditional access solutions when they started digital cable (Originally iO Digital Cable from Cablevision, later Optimum TV). One was NDS, the other was Scientific Atlanta PowerKey. They saw that gave them flexibility to try Sony and Scientific Atlanta set top boxes, and to swap conditional access solutions without replacement (earlier Optimum cable boxes, ones shipped into the early 2010s, had a white plastic smart card inserted into the bottom right of the front of the box). Cablevision used NDS in some territory, Scientific Atlanta in others. Later on Optimum moved to Samsung boxes and gave up on having separable conditional access modules; what solution was used varied by service region. CableCARDs also followed: NDS in NDS territory. Scientific Atlanta in Scientific Atlanta territory.

NDS announced end of life for their conditional access in 2021. This meant that customers who still had boxes in Cablevision's NDS territory were swapped to Samsung STBs. NDS CableCARD users were switched to Scientific Atlanta CableCARDs. A migration and pairing/activation, but life goes on.

Now in 2024, Optimum is killing Scientific Atlanta equipment within the territory. This came in two steps:

1. Optimum killed support for SA set top boxes this month (August 2024). The apparent motivation for this is that all of the Scientific Atlanta STBs do not support codecs newer than MPEG-2. Thus, to get all channels onto MPEG-4 (or another more efficient codec than MPEG-2), the SA boxes had to be retired. This follows other moves to reclaim more bandwidth for internet, including putting switched digital video into much of the territory in 2021, and then subsequently provisioning internet downstream below 850mhz. People with SA Cable boxes were sent Samsung STBs to set up in their place.
2. Optimum sent a letter to many SA/Cisco (same thing, Cisco bought SA) CableCARD users saying that the CableCARD support would end in October 2024. This is undoubtedly due to the PowerKey date rollover bug, which occurs in November 2024. When the date rolls over, CableCARDs will stop working. Now suppliers have worked to salvage devices, and there is firmware for Gen2/Gen3 cablecards. (The Optimum SA boxes used a CAM smartcard on the front; they weren't the -C models that other operators had that basically put a cablecard behind a metal shield in the back.)

If point #1 didn't exist, Optimum would have a lot of incentive to implement the fixes in point #2 to fix the PowerKEY rollover bug. But with the boxes replaced for another solution in point #1, all Optimum has remaining at this point are the CableCARDs, which are a very very small subset of Optimum's TV subscribers. I would wager Optimum has decided that the cost of running the backend server/services and keeping troubleshooting of SA equipment ongoing when the only thing left are the CableCARDs and tuning adapters is more than these subscribers generate in TV revenue.

In terms of Optimum not pitching traditional STBs as replacements, my family, friends, and neighbors in the same service territory aren't being told to trade in their Samsung boxes (some had SA boxes replaced in the past couple months for Samsung), so Optimum isn't going IPTV only, at least not yet. But at the point where you're making CableCARD users migrate and you aren't suggesting traditional boxes, just IPTV based options, Optimum's long term direction is clear. I'm sure that if you called and asked Optimum would have no problem issuing you Samsung cable boxes.

I'm also not aware of Optimum using any other CableCARD manufacturer in the territory, but it's possible that in an area that was brought under Optimum when Altice reigned (Service Electric, Suddenlink) used an alternate CableCARD issuer, or that they have equipment dependencies in those territories where they are running SA STBs longer and have more incentive to fix the date rollover bug.

EDIT: To emphasize how small the footprint of CableCARD users is, Q3 2020 is the last time Cablevision/Optimum (Altice USA) was required to report CableCARD statistics to the FCC. At that time, there were 26,397 CableCARDs deployed in 17,174 households. Cable TV has generally been shedding users over the last four years. At that point, according to their financial KPIs for that quarter, Optimum had 3,382,600 residential video customers. Which means that 0.057% of Optimum's video customers at that time had a CableCard, or a little better of one of every 2000 households subscribing to Optimum TV having a CableCARD... no wonder they're not enthusiastic about supporting them.

So I'm a CableCard user in the Service Electric (NJ) area Optimum bought when the daughter of the original founder decided she didn't want the business any more. The Cable cards distributed by Service Electric were simple one-way (Moto) cards that worked just like their set-top boxes. Serial number in their system. This seems like the small DTA converters, Service Electric supplied, and Optimum still provides connections to other TVs that you don't want to spend 13 dollars on a set-top box. They know I have the 2 cable cards on my monthly bill but when I called about taking all of their equipment back, they offered me a monthly discount roughly equal to the monthly cost of my equipment. I think they really don't want Service Electric Equipment back.
We have always been treated as "outsiders" as far as Optimum is concerned. The state of NJ required Optimum to give Service Electric customers "discounts" to make the cost of Optimim equal to the cost of Service Electric for some period of time. I see some of my discounts are rolling off now.
As to their "solutions" the Optimum TV app doesn't work for me, it says I need to upgrade my service. I'm pretty sure that's because I'm a Service Electric outsider. The Apple TV solution doesn't work with the Optimum App for the same reason. I do have an Apple TV and I can use my TVAnywhere login on the individual apps to get most channels via streaming.
These streaming solutions remove the need for Optimum to provide hardware support in most situations (if they work).
For these reasons I'm going to ride my Cable Cards out until the bitter end.