Charter Spectrum → [Cable] HD DVR's

Does anyone know of a HD DVR that will work with Charter besides the ones they lease. I have an open complaint with the FCC but I still can not get an answer from Charter other than they think TIVO would work, but I don't want to pay a monthly fee to TIVO either. It seems like the FCC law about being able to buy your own DVR is not doing any good. Has anyone found a box that will work with Charter?

HDHomerun Prime + Cablecard + Windows Media Center computer + Xbox 360 as a media center extender.

TiVo is the only CableCard-certified complete DVR that you can buy and hook up and have working tonight.

Alternatively you can buy a CableCard tuner for your computer (either the Ceton or the SiliconDust tuners) and then pair that with a Windows PC running Windows 7 or Windows 8 with Windows Media Center. Then, you can either watch TV on your computer (or connect your computer to your TV) or buy an extender like the Ceton Echo or use an Xbox 360 to connect to the TV.

Ive been sub-contracting for a while with Charter the only box i have seen successfully working with our cards is a TiVo most of those customers love there unit and would prefer it over Charter equip any day

I have the setup I detailed above working on Charter. WMC guide is amazing compared to the iGuide we have here on our moto equipment.

im looking into what your using now

ive never seen this equip before but i do like the looks of it for my personal use for my area

+1 for WMC. Been running a Ceton InfiniTV 4 + cable card ($2/month) + 4 Echoes +1 Xbox for a couple of years now. Guide looks gorgeous with MCL. I've also got 4TB of recording space, Netflix, Amazon, Pandora, local video/music/pic streaming, radio streaming and internet streaming (NASA, BBC, etc.). It's really an incredible system and a great value.

Doesn't that setup need like numerous things powered on? comp, xbox, home run?

You could always purchase a pre-owned Tivo (HD Tivo, Premiere) with Lifetime service and then you would not be paying Tivo any monthly fee. Of course if you wanted the latest model Roamio your looking at a minimum of around $700 with lifetime service.

Depends. My tuner is inside my PC which is connected directly to my TV. So to watch TV in the living room, only the PC is on. To watch on another room, the PC and the interface (echo or Xbox) is on. Turning on either of those automatically wakes the PC. The PC sleeps when a remote box (extender) powers off. The total number of devices is the same as in a traditional TiVo based whole home system. My PC pulls about 40W and my echo pulls 5W. When sleeping (which is most of the time), my PC pulls less than 1W. That's much less than a Charter DVR.

TiVO no longer sells any boxes with lifetime service.

This is not correct. You can still buy lifetime service on any TiVo device that requires a monthly service plan, even the Minis.

If they quit doing that they'd lose a lot of new customers ....

I have Ceton InfiniTV 6 ETH + Moto CableCard + WMC. Have had it for 2 months, still not working. $300 Paper weight Very very few ppl inside Charter are familiar enough with CableCARDS.

Keep calling until you find someone who is. They are there.

Once someone gets a reply and working CableCARD setup - can they make a sticky post with the steps that were followed and contact information so future people can have something to reference? Having scattered posts and "well keep calling" replies are not helpful.

Unfortunately that's all you can do. There's no specific number you can call, there's no CableCard hotline like some other cable companies have. It definitely should not take months, if it is taking more than a few days I'd call the corporate office at (203) 905-7801 during business hours and ask to speak to the escalations department (make sure they don't send you to the regular customer service queue)

That's the problem I played telephone roulette for 4 hrs on my last CC. They sent a tech after implying it was my fault. Tech arrived says hmm They didn't even activate they tuning adapter. The tech said this was the first CC install he seen in 2 years. This was 6 days ago I activated it.

I've had at least a dozen cable card activations with Charter. A few years ago, you could simply PM or email support and they would activate right away. Then they shut down online support. So now you have to play phone roulette. There is no secret. It once took me about 10 min over the phone. Other times it took dozens of phone calls and many hours, sometimes even truck rolls. This is for the exact same equipment, same service, same address. The key is being able to judge whether the person on the other end of the phone knows what they are doing.

A couple of things are key though.
- Always ask for someone in cable card activations
- Always tell them you have a Tivo, no matter what you actually have
- Walk them through entering the correct data. Ask if they see each field on their screen and confirm that they enter the numbers correctly. There are 3 numbers they must enter: Card ID, Host ID and Data. They often don't ask for Data and don't know what to do with it when you volunteer it. If they don't accept the Data number, hang up and try someone else or ask for a supervisor.

A read somewhere that of Charter's 3-4 million customers, only 39,000 have cable cards, most of which are for Tivo. So there are literally only a handful of customers using cable card tuners on PCs.

Anyway, these are tips from my own personal experience. If any Charter folks are listening, it would be nice if they could post the best procedure.

Interesting...the 3 things charter keeps asking me for is
Host Id
Data
Card SN

Yesterday they asked me for the UnitAddress as well.

They never ask me for the Card ID. I wonder if thats the problem??

I don't remember if SN and ID are the same or not. They usually have the SN already from when they issued you the card. But the important number is the Cable Card ID you see in your Ceton or WMC cable card info screen. Do you have a tuning adapter as well? Does it have a solid amber light (Motorola)? Is it connected to your PC (PCIe version) or InfiniTV (USB version)?

I've never heard of Unit Address. Maybe that's the Host ID.

Here's the procedure you should follow (according to Ceton):
»www.cetoncorp.com/docume ··· v1.2.pdf

Yes I have a Tuning Adapter, and the amber light is solid.

The Ceton I have is the ETH 6. It's external and utilizes my LAN (Gigabit).

CableCARD ID: 000-xxx-xxx-xxx-1
Host ID: xxx-000-xxx-xxx-5 -- They ask for this
Data: xxx-xxx-xxx-52 -- They ask for this

UnitAddress: 000-xxxxx-xxxxx-209 -- yesterday was the first time they asked for this
Card S/N: MA-------087 - They ask for this

I think that's the problem then. They need the card ID. If they ask for the other stuff (unit and s/n), it doesn't hurt to give it to them. But your card won't activate unless they have the card ID in their system.

The tuning adapter needs to be plugged into your Ceton.

As a last resort, you can open a support ticket with Ceton, and they will contact Charter for you and get the card authorized.

(You should probably edit your post and change or X out some of those numbers).

Yes, the Ceton is connected to the TA via USB.

Ok, I'm going to get them to put the CableCard ID in.

Edit: Yeah, I had a ticket in with Ceton for almost 2 months and they apparently have no way to work with Charter now. They said their contact for Charter is no longer there. I was going to just send it back and then Charter contacted me 2 days ago asking if they could help me get it resolved. Figured I'd give it 1 last try.

This is the way they instructed me to install tuning adapter. Maybe this will help Idk.

»www.myaccount.charter.co ··· gadapter

Yes, that's how it is setup.

Could you please provide some detailed steps of what is needed to activate the Motorola Cablecard in a HDHomerun Prime box? I've had Charter techs out here twice and gone thru 5 Cablecards with no luck. The HDHomerun log shows:

CableCARD: authentication status: authentication success, activation needed

The techs tell me if the activation is not made in the correct order the cablecard is locked and has to go back to the shop to reprogramming but they have no info as to completing the activation. I would appreciate any help you could provide.

That's not correct. If the card is staged properly, they can activate it in the field even if the wrong hits are sent previously.

If it says authentication success but activation needed, then the cable card has been activated and has been authorized with the channel packages, but it has not been paired to the host (your HDHR)

I've called a couple of times after the techs left and they tell me the card ID, host ID and data ID are all correct and paired properly . They sent activation and validation hits? but no luck. A supervisor of the techs in this area was at my house and told me they would go to the engineers for a detailed activation procedure. He said they had the same problem with TIVOs when they came out with some step out of order with activation.

If you could tell me exactly what to tell the dispatcher to get the thing working that would be great.

I was told by a Charter Rep (who seemed very knowledgeable) that if you get a cable card that hasn't been used in a while, it must be re-staged. It can not be staged in the field and must be done at the office. I have a tech coming out today to give me another cable card (#4) and so we'll see how this one goes. This will be the 3rd time a tech comes to my house. Pretty much about to give up.