No, this has been discussed countless times.

No one knows. Probably not even Comcast.

 

Thanks Chris! Sorry if I missed posts (I admittedly typically frequent the forums only occasionally - recently had to resolve one issue a month ago and TiVO has been fine since).

My primary reason for being curious is to be prepared for alternatives (been researching a little) and also not to invest in any new TiVO-related hardware (keep getting the TiVO Edge promo messages). E.g. I had recently considered getting some wifi to ethernet adapters (to eliminate my MoCA dependence as last resort) when my MoCA network had a connection issue (temporary luckily).
Luckily, after troubleshooting, restoring MoCA network connectivity turned out to be simple matter of just unplugging all the TiVOs' coaxial cables and plugging them back in and all was fine again!
(First time I have experience a loss of MoCA network connectivity in 9 years (have 2 trusty Actiontec MoCA adapters). I have had a POE filter in place since day one, but this must have been a rare glitch.
At least the solution was easy, painless (other than time involved to troubleshoot) and free.

In the meantime, until the cable card support ceases entirely, I will continue happily using my 8TB Roamio (no cable card anymore), 8TB Roamio Pro (cable card for Live TV) and 6 TiVO Minis.
Saved me a bundle over the years and loved having such a large 'shows' storage capacity!

Too bad cable card support will end entirely.
But at least it lasted longer than I expected after the posts about FCC cable card support rule started about 4 years ago (hard to believe it has been that long - seems like only a couple of years ago that this came up).

 

A few years back Tivo was suing Comcast over patents, and they settled that legal case with Comcast.

At around that same time I remember reading something about Comcast supporting cable cards until like 2032. I don't think that was binding or anything but for some reason that date was mentioned somewhere.

 

At around that same time I remember reading something about Comcast supporting cable cards until like 2032.

The case was about IP licensing only and nothing to do with CableCARD support.

https://www.nexttv.com/news/comcast-and-tivo-reach-agreement-end-4-year-patent-fight

 

Comcast has not shared their plans, but we have some information we can work from to create a WAG, which has absolutely no accuracy.

• No new CableCARDs will be issued, so the number of customers will only go down over time.
• Comcast is under no obligation to support CableCARDs for anyone, anywhere, at this time.
• Each and every month there is about a 2% churn in customers. If that number was evenly distributed over the customer base (it is not), in ~four years there would be no CableCARD customers left (CableCARD customers are sticky, but they, too, eventually move, or shave the cord, or exit stage right, shrinking the customer numbers).
• While we do not have the current customer numbers, the last reported numbers indicated a fraction of a percent of Comcast's customers (i.e. almost non-existent). If 100% of those customers terminated TV service all at the same time the number of customers would not even seen as a blip in the customer churn numbers for a single month.
• Cord shaving (cutting) reduces the number of TV subscribers (for all operators) by somewhere between 5-10% per year. While CableCARD customers may be sticky, there is no reason to believe CableCARD customers are not also shaving (and we have seen some post here about doing so for price reasons alone). The number of CableCARD customers continue to shrink.
• Comcast's next gen HSI (mid-split) supports CableCARDs, and is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2025. That is about 4 years from actual start to finish.
• Comcast is also aggressively moving to what they are calling their X-Class HSI (D4.0 FDX), which is the next step beyond mid-split, which Comcast has stated will not support CableCARDs in the common case of FDX amplifiers. They have small isolated deployments now (in N+0 areas), and are currently constrained by equipment availability as to how fast they can deploy, but the mid-split work preps much of the hard (behind the scenes) infrastructure for this to be performed more quickly than the mid-split deployment time frame if the vendors can ship equipment. Those vendors have claimed their manufacturing is (rapidly) ramping up. Your locations schedule (as with mid-split) will vary.
• At some point the number of CableCARD customers cannot possibly justify the expense of the equipment and license fees that Comcast is paying to support them, and some CFO will push to push the cancel button on those contracts.

So, if you want a WAG, you can fantasize that CableCARDs might survive for your use for 4-5 years, but do not be surprised if you do not even see 2 years in your location.

 

...So, if you want a WAG, you can fantasize that CableCARDs might survive for your use for 4-5 years, but do not be surprised if you do not even see 2 years in your location.

I hope my cable cards continue to work for at least 1 or 2 more years. In the meantime they are a nice perk of our Comcast tv service. I already dropped Comcast internet and have been preparing to move on from their tv service as well when the cards stop working.

 

Just browse the forums, there's plenty of insight already posted that you can feel free to ask questions in.
Everyone doesn't need to have their own personal thread on the issue 🤷

 

My parents who live in Murrysville, PA just outside of Pittsburgh had their cable card shut off this week. They contacted Comcast and they confirmed it is disabled and is done. I guess Cable Card TiVo are door stop now. They were still using a TiVo HD that is 15+ years old so they got their lifetime out of it I suppose.

 

No, that is not what happened.

Comcast has not “disabled” cards anywhere, even if that’s what the CSR’s said.

Comcast had a failed firmware update which affected some models of cards. It was not intentional and they are trying to fix it.

CSR’s are reading their scripts which does not account for this inadvertent error and incorrectly implying to customers that their cards are irreversibly disabled on purpose and their only recourse is to stop using them. That is not true.

However, if a customer believes it and surrenders their card, there is no getting it back.

 

Last night my Edge had error message v 58. I went to the nearest Xfinity store where other Tivo customers were there to return the cable card and now rent the cable box, TIVO is DEAD!

 

Sorry to hear you're experiencing issues. My Roamio and Roamio Pro and Tivo Minis are all working fine with Xfinity over MoCA. I have the red Motorola cable card.
Just curious, did you try troubleshooting before returning your cable card?

 

I’ve been having several issues with two tivos in the past week.. one, I got several “cable card not activated” blue/white screens while watching TV, which resolved pretty quickly in 10 seconds, but recurred throughout the day.

the 2nd thing, which MAY NOT be directly CC related, is that a primary Tivo Bolt froze up, and needed a hard reboot (pull plug, re-insert)… after that, it wouldn’t get past the initial “we’re almost there” screen.. which FREAKED ME THE S..T OUT!

After another reboot I got it to the main screens, and tried to do a tivo service connection (the CLOCK was off by ~ 6 hours actually at that point which was odd)..

A service connection seemed to work and downloaded, but the CLOCK did not adjust or reset to current time - still ~ 6 hours off. After about 30 minutes, the clock was accurate..

But, about 6 hours later in the day, a blue screen message popped up that said something like “this tivo has not connected to the Tivo Service in OVER 30 DAYS”… etc.. WTF, it had done a sucessful connection the day prior and then SEEMED to connect, download and process yesterday and yet this notice pops up?

This is a Tivo on an annual that doesn’t renew till NEXT AUGUST.

 

I have the 8xxx series cable cards. I did a get a spare from Comcast before the end date....they sent another 8xxx card. My cable card apparently got the firmware update and got the unauthorized channel error. Went through a variety of "support" people via text as you can't get a person. Long story short, someone from their reddit team was able to get the spare card paired and the card working again. I did get a call from a gentlemen in the cable card department asking if I was still having issues. I told him I was able to get the spare card working. He gave me his direct number so if I had issues again in the future should hopefully be a quicker resolution until Comcast completely stops supporting cable cards.

 

My cable cards work fine. Of. Course, I purchased a new TiVo and asked Xfinity to link my existing card to the new TiVo.

Lol and behold, Xfinity turned off my other card - or delinked Mt television channels even though the card still works. Talk about pissed!

I'd cut the cord if it were only me. The better half is resistant., though

 

”Startin’ to look a lot like Christmas”

 

And yet both leave us without TV.

 

No issues with Xfinity here in northern AL. My Roamio, two Bolts, and two minis are working just fine. I haven't added a new CableCard in nearly two years and I don't want to open a can o'worms by calling Xfinity and asking any, "What if..." questions. As someone here stated, maybe they don't even know when CC support will end.
That being said, I don't think anyone can argue that the end of the cable TiVo DVR is approaching and, for that reason, I won't be buying any more TiVo products (I wish they would stop sending me those difficult to delete "TiVo SALE" messages). For me, the writing was on the wall when not only did I read about customers being "accidentally" double-billed, but it happened to me as well. And it damn near took an act of Congress to get that mess straightened out. At one point, I couldn't even get through to their billing department by phone. That told me they were in a sudden money crunch and had to resort to some shaddy tactics to get some quick cash. Sort of like the company that's about to go under suddenly having "computer problems" that result in payroll issues and payless paydays. It's not a matter of if but rather when TiVo dies, which saddens me. It's been a great 22 years but, when the end does come, so will any connection (literally) to a cable company. I'll save a few bucks when that happens but I sure will miss TiVo.

 

When I cancelled Xfinity last month, I asked about returning the cable card. She told me to keep it because they are will be going away. I think if I were to sign up again with Xfinity (as a new customer after 90 days), the cable card will be useless.

 

I hardly use the TiVo other than when the Internet goes down which is rare. I assume Xfinity still has some type of DVR, so I will probably just grab one of those when the time comes.

I remember something about cable cards only being needed for pay channels like HBO? Will all the other regular channels still work?

 

Will all the other regular channels still work?

No.

 

This past weekend had no tv service. But V58 note was there. Spent several days texting with Xfinity and no resolution. Tried tv this AM and everything is working.

 

I was cut off last week in Monroe, La.

 

You can keep saying this, it doesn’t make it true.

You were not “cut off”. You had a technical error.

Comcast still supports existing cards in your area and their entire coverage area.

 

After everything back to normal, TiVo and live broadcast no longer working. Tried hard rebooting and no lights on TiVo dvr. Time for new unit?

 

Call Comcast before doing anything and ask them is the best advice I have. Maybe another member knows more.

 

Mine are now defunct in Houston. Searching for the best streaming service. How do I watch my recorded shows though?

 

To help your search, try Suppose.tv. And, you can still watch your recorded shows on your TiVo even if the cableCARDs are not working.

 

From Xfinity: Good morning as of October 24, 2024, Xfinity no longer provides or supports CableCARD to new or existing customers.

 

Also from Xfinity:

 

Comcast still supports cablecards in your area. I hope you get everything up and running. It sounds like you most likely had a technical error through no fault of your own. I agree with him.

 

Update:
After thinking I’m not sure pdxjim. Hopefully another member knows.

 

Keep in mind if your carrier is Comcast your only option is to repair the unit that is no longer working correct.

"IF" that is truly the case, you simply tell Comcast you are replacing your hard drive. Meanwhile, it will be re-paired for your new unit. The Hardware info completely changes when you install a new hard drive, so Comcast won't know it's a different model.

 

This topic has been beat to death. Misinformation and disinformation being spread. Some of you should be working for the cable news media. The best plan is to assume your CableCard will, at some point in the future (near or far, dunno - guessing even the cable techs dunno) become obsolete. The end of their antiquated technology is inevitable. Do your research now and have a Plan B ready when, not if, but when your cc-dependent TiVo device becomes nothing but a way to view previously stored video files.

 

I did a full power down and reboot. Nothing. Bubkes. Still dead.

Houston. Comcast. Bricked.

 

I have 4 Tivo units. Last month, 2 of my units disconnected from Comcast. I called customer service 3x with 1 call just hanging up on me after they could not fix it. On the 3rd time customer support was able to turn on 1 of my boxes after numerous times trying. They then scheduled a service call for my last box with no charge. The tech could not get it to work either. I did some research and I ended up finding a link for online cable card activation. Once online, I could see all 4 of my CC and one showed deactivated. I tried re-pairing the device about 10 times with about 10 min wait time in between. To my surprise, my Tivo started to work. The link I used:
cablecardactivation.xsp.comcast.net
I hope it works for someone else.

 

I have 4 Tivo units. Last month, 2 of my units disconnected from Comcast. I called customer service 3x with 1 call just hanging up on me after they could not fix it. On the 3rd time customer support was able to turn on 1 of my boxes after numerous times trying. They then scheduled a service call for my last box with no charge. The tech could not get it to work either. I did some research and I ended up finding a link for online cable card activation. Once online, I could see all 4 of my CC and one showed deactivated. I tried re-pairing the device about 10 times with about 10 min wait time in between. To my surprise, my Tivo started to work. The link I used:
cablecardactivation.xsp.comcast.net
I hope it works for someone else.

What model cablecards do you have? The website finally worked for me! I'll be sure to try this when I have problems. I have all PKM908s and one just stopped working with "Not-Ent". I had to get the cablecard department to re-pair, but it eventually worked.

 

I noticed on my latest Dec 5, 2024 bill from Xfinity there is a note that says that starting Jan 6, 2025 they will no longer support TV adaptors, etc. I wonder if that means cable card cut off timing for our account.. I’m going to try and get a few cards next week for the two reminding but unused TiVos in the house.

 

I have an 'as early as Jan 28 2025' note for the TV Adapter note.