Considering a brand-spanking-new TiVo Roamio Plus or Pro DVR? You might want to hold off a few months. Cable providers who haven’t provided updated firmware for their CableCARDs essentially limit 6-tuner DVRs to 4 streams or pixelate video beyond recognition. Out of the box, beyond the obvious viewing issues, customers in this situation may also end up with a certain percent of unusable recordings and will be unable to fully flex their TiVo Mini whole-home muscles. Yet, for those who find themselves in this predicament, TiVo has provided a method to limit the number of tuners in use until the issue can be corrected. At the moment, the dysfunctional 4/6 CableCARDs appear limited to certain Comcast regions running Cisco/Scientific Atlanta gear with the MSO anticipating upgrade completion in October. Further, FiOS TV subscribers with pixelated content and Motorola cards numbered ######-002 should contact Verizon for replacement.
More detail from the support note quoted below and, if nothing else, this should provide good fodder for TiVo’s FCC CableCARD complaint.
The following CableCARD firmware versions are capable of handling six tuners:
- Motorola CableCARDs — version 6.25 or later
- Cisco/Scientific Atlanta CableCARDs — OS Ver: PKEY1.5.2.2801
Currently we have no data on compatible NDS or Conax CableCARD firmware. Nagravision CableCARDs can support four tuners only.