Tivo HD, Comcast, and M-Card

My bet is that once you get your two basic cards working you'll never want to call Comcast again, much less let them touch the working cards.

I don't think the S3's can handle one multistream card. I think they need two.

ajwees41

ajwees41 said:

I don't think the S3's can handle one multistream card. I think they need two.

ajwees41

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The OP said they have a TiVo HD which supports M-Cards. The S3 doesn't yet support M-Cards in multi-stream mode yet.

rainwater said:

The OP said they have a TiVo HD which supports M-Cards. The S3 doesn't yet support M-Cards in multi-stream mode yet.

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I saw that, but for comcast to say that a multistream card is comming and actually sound like they know what the HDtivo that was just released kind of suprised me.

I wish the would get the 2way crap out of the way, so I can pick one up.

ajwees41

It really suprised me also. I've been in IT for 15 years and to find a first level support guy that seemed to know what he was talking about shocked me. He was very adament that the MCard would be out "any day" in my area.

WeBoat said:

It really suprised me also. I've been in IT for 15 years and to find a first level support guy that seemed to know what he was talking about shocked me. He was very adament that the MCard would be out "any day" in my area.

Click to expand...

Is there anyone using the new S3 with multistream cards?

ajwees41

ajwees41 said:

Is there anyone using the new S3 with multistream cards?

ajwees41

Click to expand...

Yes. I have one M-Card in and it acts like a single stream card.

Well, as usual, the Denver area Comcast CSRs are clueless - they insist there is no such thing as an M-stream CableCARD (he kept thinking it was called a multi-screen card).

I know I can get two S cards, but I'd much rather have an M- card.

Hogues92 said:

Yes. I have one M-Card in and it acts like a single stream card.

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so are you sayig with onc multistream card only one tuner works on the TivoHD?

ajwees41

On S3, where the M-card is not supported, the box treats the M-card as an S-card. The M-card is backwards compatible that way.

yunlin12 said:

On S3, where the M-card is not supported, the box treats the M-card as an S-card. The M-card is backwards compatible that way.

Click to expand...

So it sounds like you still need two multistream cards even in the new tivohd.

ajwees41

yunlin12 said:

On S3, where the M-card is not supported, the box treats the M-card as an S-card. The M-card is backwards compatible that way.

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OK, so I'm getting increasingly annoyed with the fact that the "premium" S3 is lacking the features of the mainstream TivoHD... wtf Tivo?

Tivo HD supports M-cards, "hybrid native" video output, etc. Tivo needs to stop treating their S3 like red-headed step children and push an update out that gives the S3 equal support! If the S3 is incapable of supporting these improvements than Tivo has really thrown the S3 owners under the bus.

The silence from Tivo on which (if any!) S3 advances owners can expect is deafening!

snitm said:

OK, so I'm getting increasingly annoyed with the fact that the "premium" S3 is lacking the features of the mainstream TivoHD... wtf Tivo?

Tivo HD supports M-cards, "hybrid native" video output, etc. Tivo needs to stop treating their S3 like red-headed step children and push an update out that gives the S3 equal support! If the S3 is incapable of supporting these improvements than Tivo has really thrown the S3 owners under the bus.

The silence from Tivo on which (if any!) S3 advances owners can expect is deafening!

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Give me a break. I don't doubt for one second that the S3 will have such an update, probably long before Mcards are mainstream. Tivo isn't throwing any S3 owners under the bus.

jfh3 said:

Give me a break. I don't doubt for one second that the S3 will have such an update, probably long before Mcards are mainstream. Tivo isn't throwing any S3 owners under the bus.

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Ok, maybe "throwing under the bus" was melodramatic but the fact that the Tivo HD was released with an updated software release that provides features not found on the S3 really makes this whole thing hard to swallow (as a "premium" S3 owner).

They quite clearly have the ability to provide these features and Tivo as been focused elsewhere. Official eSata support is a very clear example; kickstart 62 proves it works... So what is Tivo waiting for; when their Tivo-branded eSata enclosure is ready to be delivered to the masses?

The whole thing smacks of poor release management within Tivo.

Hogues92 said:

Yes. I have one M-Card in and it acts like a single stream card.

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Hogues92 do you have the new TivoHD that just came out, or the one that's been out a while?

ajwees41

snitm said:

Ok, maybe "throwing under the bus" was melodramatic but the fact that the Tivo HD was released with an updated software release that provides features not found on the S3 really makes this whole thing hard to swallow (as a "premium" S3 owner).

They quite clearly have the ability to provide these features and Tivo as been focused elsewhere. Official eSata support is a very clear example; kickstart 62 proves it works... So what is Tivo waiting for; when their Tivo-branded eSata enclosure is ready to be delivered to the masses?

The whole thing smacks of poor release management within Tivo.

Click to expand...

Well, Tivo HD is 8.1+ and the S3 is 8.3+, so I presume the S3 will actually have some features that the THD doesn't have. As for why eSATA doesn't work on the THD now - the kickstart 62 method is likely disabled because of possible performance issues related to the lower-end eSATA controller on the THD and the "official" support is waiting for exactly what you say - Tivo to release the "supported, branded" solution.

snitm said:

The silence from Tivo on which (if any!) S3 advances owners can expect is deafening!

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What silence? TiVo has already said they will be adding M-Card support to the S3 this year. Sure it would be great if it was ready first, but I'll cut them some slack considering they were focusing their efforts on a new product launch.

jfh3 said:

As for why eSATA doesn't work on the THD now - the kickstart 62 method is likely disabled because of possible performance issues related to the lower-end eSATA controller on the THD and the "official" support is waiting for exactly what you say - Tivo to release the "supported, branded" solution.

Click to expand...

Highly doubtful a minimum 1.5Gbps interface will have any trouble with at worse case 150Mbps streams (2 x 40Mbps write, 1x 40Mbps read, and 30Mbps of whatever you want to throw in) and those are very very conservative #s, to the point of overestimating significantly.

If the single SATA channel can handle the bandwidth to do all the recording and playback on a single drive, why would it have trouble with 2 drives? It isn't like the TiVo writes any more or less data for the 2 drive case. It can't magically record 4 shows at once when you add the second drive. Even if one claims there is more overhead to handle 2 drives, you are using less than 15% of the capacity of the interface.

snitm said:

Ok, maybe "throwing under the bus" was melodramatic but the fact that the Tivo HD was released with an updated software release that provides features not found on the S3

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As others have noted, the HD does not have an updated software release, the HD has OLDER software than a current S3. Remember how it took a while for the S3 to have some features which the S2s had with their last release? Both were likely caused by branching off the code for the development of the device. I would guess that TiVo is working on a new version of the OS which would be the same for the S3 and THD (Bringing the THD the more recent changes in 8.3 and bringing the S3 the changes which the hardware is capable of [such as mcard support])