Comcast XFINITY TV → Tivo Series 3 Cablecard Nightmare

After 4 visits I still can't get my new Series 3 working with both cablecards.

Visit 1 - nothing works

Visit 2 - Slot 1 works no HD, slot 2 gives 161-2

Visit 3 - Slot 1 gives everything even HD only after the technician leaves after about 5 hours later, Slot 2 161-4

Visit 4 - everything lost on both cablecards until I wake up in the morning, Slot 1 is happy again, Slot 2 giving 161-52

Welcome to the way things will be.

Is it the cable card, is it the device, is it the line, is it the moon and the stars....

Have you thought about calling Tivo support as well?

Slot 2 has issues for a lot of TiVO owners. Everything with Comcast could be fine but I know a couple of people who have had slot 2 fail on them.

Tivo support rep: Have you called your cable company?

The fact is, all of the home support for these Godforsaken things is going to come from the cable companies. All Tivo can do is exchange the unit.

The problem is the never-ending non standardization of cable cards and interface. It really is a crap shoot when you buy a tv or Tivo unit with the intent of using a cable card. In theory: good idea. In reality at the present time: headache. And who works the hardest, yet still looks bad in the end? The service provider.

Agreed! Especially with the Ping Pong affect.

Really, people want open access to 3rd party equipment, but I can almost guarantee you this will do nothing but frustrate the end user.

Unlike cell phones, where phones are made in partnership with the carriers and sold by the carriers, these 3rd party boxes are making them, for the most part, on their own and selling them on their own as well.

Just like with satellite...

Customer: My satellite isn't working
Bird Co: Call your hardware vendor
Customer: I want credit for downtime
Bird Co: (falls off their chair) hahahahahah

At least when boxes are distributed by the cable co, no matter how bad some people think they are, the buck stops with the cable co. Now who will people blame? The cable co, sure, but in some cases it will be misguided.

Did they try new cards? I had the same problem with mind it was a bad card.

Actually, I am all for 3rd party equipment IF and ONLY IF there is a standard. Directv uses different brands of receivers, which are married to DirecTv media cards.

But as it is, there is no standard for anything and they are a huge PITA.

We have one sub who uses a cable card along with his new HD tv with a built in DVR hard drive. Sounds good, right? Yeah, until the hard drive goes bad and he has to take the whole TV to get serviced. I think every tech in the shop has been to his house for a TC.

Tivo S3, what a great investment. What till Comcast goes SDV in July 2007

Heinrich, hit up the TiVo discussion forums, particularly the S3 section at »www.tivocommunity.com/ti ··· =-1&f=51

See if folks have reported success/failure in your region, with your provider.

I have two Motorola CableCards working flawlessly in my S3, just an hour or so north of you, since November (yeah, even through the Adelphia->Comcast transition).

As others have alluded to, the ping-pong is a pain, but more oftent han not (really) the failure of CableCards to work is due to a failure to correctly & fully HARD initialize the CableCards on the cableco's (their headend's) part. Follow this up, and look at threads related to your region for further tips/advice.

Of course, no harm attempting one device (S3) swap as well, if you've already tried multiple CableCards!

Update:

2 Cablecards work fine in Slot 1 giving me everything. Slot 2 does NOT give me channels except analog on either card. The "configure cablecard" menu shows a screen that says "cablecard not in normal operation" for either card.

Tivo is swapping out my unit.

Here's what's interesting. Last night I wasn't sure if I was going to get Heroes or 24. They both come on at 9pm. Do you know that if I set the recording up, the cablecard does obey and I got both shows! I tested 1 more double-record this morning on HBOHD and SHOWHD with no trouble, even though I cannot "watch live tv" on cablecard 2.

The single-CableCard Heros & 24 recording scenario is expected - neither is on an encrypted channel, CableCards are not even in use, except to remap the frequency tot he guide channel number (which is pre-done and the TiVo already 'knows' it).

The HBO & SHO recordings surprise me, though! There is no difference betwee simultaneously watching two encrypted shows Live (switching tuners & buffers) and actually recording them. With 1 CableCard - only ONE should have recorded/shown up!

bet they didnt connect it correctly, they need to input cablecard one, call it in and have it set into system, then input card2. I have had to do this with at least 10 diff. people. every time it starts working right away. Also might need to make sure Tivo is set for reading off of cable not phone line.

Well I didn't specify but this was simultaneous recordings of 24 in HD on the HD local Fox channel and also HEROES on HD on the local NBC HD channel.

(and, no OTA antenna)

The point tishoo was making was that both of these programs are on local HD channels, most likely, not encrypted. This means that you could receive them even without cable cards as long as your TV has a QAM tuner. All these cards are doing for those channel right now is making your Tivo match the channels HD feed (something like 90.1, 102.3, etc) to the channel it is shown on in the cable system (502, 806, etc).

Since your Tivo has had the card installed and now recognizes the corresponding channels for the local HDs, it is able to easily record off of both channels at once without any need for the cable card.

As for your encrypted channels, however, you will still need the cable card to receive these, in case you were to think you could ditch the card and still receive them without.

I have 6 cablecards with three Series 3 boxes with Comcast. The cards are Scientific Atlanta cards. I didn't have a problem with the S3 or cards. The problem was finding a knowledgeable tech who could also communicate to a knowledgeable person at the Head End. Once that was achieved they could get each card up and running pretty quickly. Prior to having the proper people do the activation they told me all sorts of stories and none were true. The correct information just needs to be input properly at the headend and everything should work.

In theory yes, in real life you have to refer to the last paragraph of what MadMann said above in his first post:

Thanks...ok I need some additional advice. My 2nd Tivo arrived and everything is working fantastic. The problem was a defective Tivo all along.

Question though, I was thrown at first because both CableCard configuration menus say "in order for service to be activated for this device please call 804-xxxxxx" when I never saw that before. I saw messages such as "service authorized" and a few other similar messages.

Also, the original broken Tivo was giving me CRAPPY vomit-dripping-on-screen analog channels as soon as the cards were 'hit.' The analog
channels looked GREAT _until_ they were hit. On this new Tivo, BOTH cablecards look great in all analog modes (and premium and HD). I'm pretty sure that I don't want the cards to be hit. I'm going to cancel tomorrow's service appointment until I have any trouble. Everything's just so nice and smooth.

Both cablecards say in the diagnostic screen:

"Waiting for CP Auth"
"No ECMs detected
Powerkey status: Ready

Does anyone know enough about this situation to tell if I'm sitting on a device that's going to 'time out' and no longer work and should I set up a service appointment - and if I do care to guess if my analog channels will go vomitous as they did on Tivo1 when the cards were hit?

Thanks