While several TiVo representatives were (with me) at DigitalLife on Thursday, others were engaged with the FCC… What I found particularly interesting in the follow-up letter is “CableCARD deployment issues” — which has a decidedly negative connotation.
I experienced a great deal of pain and frustration at Comcast’s hands in getting my S3 up and running. If I wasn’t a blogger, I might have gave up on CableCARDs after multiple visits and numerous phone calls — they fought me every step of the way, and the few times they did try to help they were largely clueless how their own equipment, services, and billing work.
I purchased a Tivo series3 and had Comcast install 2 Cablecards. Despite the fact that it was the first series3 the tech had seen it went soomth as he just followed Tivo’s directions. You have to have two astute technicians (one to install and one on the phone activating the cards from the office) And the cards need to be working and programed correctly. You also have to have the correct numbers for the cards (not always the case). The biggest problem I see is if cable companies flag a program and you can’t save it on your Tivo to view later. This is potentially a place for abuse that will drive Tivo’s customers into using a cable companie’s equipment.
I purchased a Series 3 the day it came out. It arrived on the following Monday. Cox Cable in Santa Barbara was out the next morning. The installer was not aware of the product, but had no trouble installing and configuring two CableCards. All went smoothly.
I don’t know why they won’t let you do a self install. it is not hard at all. There are four sets of numbers they need for each cable card install. The cable card number, Host number, Data number, and the unit address number which looks like the cable card number. Way to easy to install and there is no need to have a tech come to the house and make you take a day off or have to wait for an appointment.
Comcast (formerly Time Warner Shreveport) came out and after a couple hours finally got mine working. They went through 4 cards before they got 2 to work. I’m being billed $1.75 each per month for the cards, which is BS.
I have had COmcast come out twice now and they have tried 8 cable cards (4 each visit). Neither Tech has been able to get it to work. I live in Santa Clara just a few miles from the TiVo building. You would think that Comcast here would have this worked out. They checked the signal strength and so on. Why does this have to be so hard?