Charter Spectrum → [CATV] Needing Tivo self-install pointers

So my appointment with Charter for a Pro-install for a couple of Tivos has come and gone. It looks like a trip to Charter's office to get a couple of cablecards. Is there anything I should know as far as getting it provisioned on the first try. Should I rely to do it on the phone, chat, or Direct (I'm sure that'll take a couple of days)?? Do you turn in the Charter DVRs when I pickup the CCs or after I get the others running?? I sure wish they would've kept the appointment ..............

What? Did Charter just blow you off and not contact you about not being able to make it to the appointment?

If so,
Chalk up another one for Charter and it's totally efficient ran operation. I don't care if the installers are subcontracted or not, they still represent Charter!

It really isnt hard... If it was me I'd use the direct forum though.

Should've suggested the Direct forum also as they are the ones who can get stuff done on the first try, usually.

As it turned out, the guy came an hour and a half late. It was a waste of time. He spent an hour and a half only accomplishing getting the CCs activated. I thought he was hooking up the converter boxes wrong and suggested another way (which turned out to be the correct way, I couldn't remember where Tivo's tutorial was, but found it on their site after he left, not on a preloaded video on the box). He hooked a splitter to feed both the Tivo and the converter box, instead of feeding only the converter and using the "out" jack to feed the Tivo. The gal on the other end of his telephone had never provisioned a CC or converter, so she wasn't much help either. The tech kept telling her the S/N on the converter, and she kept telling him it wasn't a valid number. But the tech did started wondering if that box was already provisioned to another account since he got it off another truck instead of new in the box from the warehouse .It was a miracle that she provisioned the CCs. Another tech stopped by and looked at the setup and agreed that it was hooked up correctly. So it was the blind leading the blind. At 7:30 I told him to call it quits because nothing was working and rescheduled another SC for Thurs.. He wanted to take the CCs with him, but realized that it was better to leave them since at least they were working. Now armed with the correct way to hookup the converter boxes it better work out. Live and learn.

It took several visits (and an FCC complaint) to
square mine away....

Anyway stupid question with your converter aka TA/SDV adapter....
Does it have a USB cable running from it to the TIVO?
When you plugged it into the TIVO did it say something
like "SDV adapter detected" and try and set it up?

Anyway my advice is the same as I said earlier use the DIRECT FORUM....

USB cable was installed correctly.

No, because the coax cabling was f*****. There was noway to get that far. It recognised the CC though. From what the Tivo sight says, that when the unit recognises the converter, it will download a map of the channels. We tried to tune in channels (made sure it was HD and a channel within the plan, and not within the "analog channels) and said it was an unauthorised channel. I had previously before the visit downloaded the channel lineup from Tivo. We could see what channel and description of the show but no video.

They're coming at 1-3 tomorrow, and will report back what ever happens. Now that at least the wiring will be correct, we'll see what happens. I should have made notes from the Tivo tutorial before he came. Wont happen again and if he still doesn't see the light, I have it bookmarked for him to see. If it doesn't fly tomorrow, I'll tell him to leave me everything and I'll do it myself via Direct.

I'm not going to say anything except the fact that I'm not going to say anything!!

On second thought, it's pretty bad when Charters own people, whether subcontracted or not, don't know what the heck they're doing!! There's that darn left and and right hand thing again!!

I'm assuming the converter box you're talking about is the switched digital tuning adapter. The correct way to set that up is with a 2-way splitter feeding both boxes, and a usb cable that connects the tivo to the tuning adapter. It sounds like an encryption issue. Can you pick up local channels? Ie try your pbs hd feed that shouldn't be encrypted.

Give the guys a break. There are only a couple of thousand Cable Cards deployed through out the whole Charter footprint. So a tech may see one of these type installs once every few months that type of exposure doesnt lend its self to expert product knowledge.

Yes, that is what I'm talking about. On the Tivo video it definitely shows that the cable comes "in" the adapter and then "out" to the Tivo. And then of course the usb cable. I'm going to have the tech try this because that's how it shows. Who better then Tivo knowing how to hook it up. But one thing I'm going to do is to see if Tivo has a telephone support # and have it ready if we get stone walled again.

The tuning adapters have issues passing all the frequencies to the tivo. That's why they use the splitter, to assure the full spectrum gets to the tivo.

Who would know better than tivo how to hook it up? The MSO that has to make it work. In this case its charter.

OK so here’s my report. A subcontractor showed up and the first thing that he did was put a meter on the line at the 1st TV. He didn’t like what he saw and long story short, he replaced the drop to the house. First hurdle accomplished.

Next he asked where and what size my splitter was, and after seeing a 5 port switch I had next to the TV, asked where the modem was. When I told him it was an 8-way that was in the basement next to the modem, he asked if I had an amplifier. I told him no, just a simple splitter. He wasn’t too thrilled about that and off to the basement we go. He ended up redoing all the cabling in the area of the splitter and added an 8-way amplifier, all pretty and professionally done.. My modem synced a hell of a lot better and was getting a 11 ping to Chicago (I live in the St.Louis metro-east). He said the modem was way out of spec. Second hurdle solved.

Next he repeatedly power cycle the SDV(??) adapter, not getting what he was supposed to get. He was on the phone having the dispatcher cycle the pairing (??) to no avail. I was getting local programing in SD and HD, but that’s it. After tinkering with it for quite a while, finally it came to life. We rejoiced and he moved on to the bedroom Tivo.

Not as much luck there. With the dispatcher that knew what she was doing going off shift and nearly 8 PM, he said he did all he could do, and that someone would contact me. Whoever comes out should be bringing a new CC on the possibility that mine was bad.

He fixed all the f@@@@ed up stuff that the previous 3 techs should have found and fix (HD and H.S.I. install, fixing a modem problem, fist tech that was out to install the Tivos).. He asked who came out to install the HD/internet, when I told him it was a Charter person; he didn’t have any control over them, but said if it was someone from his company, heads would have rolled.

If I had tried to do this myself, I wouldn’t have had a chance. Money well spent.