An article on ConsumerFury tells how at one point Time Warner cable stated that they would not provide CableCards to customers with Tivo Series 3 PVRs. This caused much outrage, and Time Warner has appologized.
Read more after the jump.
(more…)
PC World: CableCard Technology in Trouble
I set out at the CEDIA trade show to find out how–and if–manufacturers are implementing CableCard technology. Based on what I heard today, the technology is in big trouble, and you can blame cable television companies.
There was a period of time when I had to deal with a CableCARD problem. I posted all of the knowledge that I had gained up here on this blog. There has been an extremely large number of people who have read about my problem and its resolution.
I hope that the information has been helpful. The CableCARD in my Toshiba RPTV has been functioning flawlessly on Comcast’s system since the firmware upgrade. Since I have not had any problems lately, I have not been keeping abreast of the latest in CableCARD news.
Please leave a comment on this article if you are having problems with a CableCARD. I will try to do my best to help provide you with further information.
If you have had a problem with a CableCARD and then resolved the problem, please comment as well and let me know what solved the problem.
My goal is to collect as much information about CableCARD problems and their resolutions here. This should make it not only easier for us, but also easier for cable companies like Comcast and Adelphia.
Toshiba has shipped me the new firmware, Seine 1.5.0. The television is working flawlessly thus far. I would like to thank those at Comcast and Toshiba who worked so hard to resolve this problem.
If you have a Toshiba television that is not working on the Comcast system, here are the steps that you should take:
Toshiba America Consumer Products (TACP)
(800) 631-3811
Comcast Cable
(800) COMCAST
The new firmware is now shipping!
If you have already spoken to Toshiba in the past, and received the previous upgrade, you will in all likelihood be sent this one.
If you have a Toshiba television that is not working with Comcast, or any other cable provider that uses a Motorola or Scientific Atlanta CableCARD, call Toshiba and ask for the upgrade.
Toshiba America Consumer Products (TACP)
(800) 631-3811
I should receive the update in the next week, and will post how it works.
The solution to the problem is on its way.
The problem turned out to be with Toshiba’s firmware and not with Comcast’s system. It is my understanding that the older Toshiba firmware did not allow the television to use a wide enough range of frequencies.
Toshiba sent me a special ‘Diagnostic firmware’ which allows the TV to work perfectly with Comcast’s Motorola CableCARD.
The firmware is not yet ready for prime-time. There is one issue with Scientific Atlanta cards that Toshiba would like to iron out before releasing it. The release date should be in the next few weeks.
If your TV is not working with Comcast, your best course of action is to call Toshiba America Consumer Products (TACP) and ask to be put on the list to receive the new firmware. Make sure that they are not sending you the older 94SEINE145 firmware.
Toshiba America Consumer Products (TACP)
(800) 631-3811
Visit the CableCARD Experience thread at DSLReports.com for more information about this issue.
The CableCARD issues continue; however, now Comcast is being proactive. I emailled the president of the company and he got the ball rolling.
Techs made sure that the line here at the house is fine. They then tried many more CableCARDs and they did not work. The previouis tech had done this as well.
The difference this time is that the tech, and the Senior Executive over Technical Operations of the company will start a dialog with Toshiba. Hopefully the two companies can figure out what is going on. My bet is that the Motorola CableCARD is not properly following the ANSI CableCARD spec and the TV is becoming “confused”. Who knows? The bright side is that everything is moving in the right direction.
I spoke to the tech one more time. It turns out that he had a family problem and was unable to call back. I think he may have called back because I had corporate send him an email. Either way he sent a few hits, gave up and it still does not work.
This experience is extremely frustrating. Luckily I found out that I can receive most of the high definition channels with a directional UHF antenna. I’m surprised that the signals come in this well from the broadcast towers as the analog channels are very fuzzy. I am now entertaining the idea of dumping Comcast; however, I will sorely miss the Discovery and History channels.
These may be able to be picked up with free to air satellite. I will look into that.
If anyone from Comcast reads this, please re-examine your CableCARD infrastructure and get this working for everyone else out there. It is in your best interest as the FCC will otherwise fine you for non-compliance with their CableCARD mandate.
I will soon talk to my local city council to have the franchise agreement re-examined. In this day and age I see no reason for such agreements. If it is economically feasible for another company to enter the area and string up their own wires, then why stop them? If it is not economically feasible, then other companies will not enter the area. I will expound on this idea more when I am a bit more cool-headed.
This is a very old post; however, it is frequently read. There have been many updates since I posted this. The upshot is that it works!
Please take a look at the CableCARD topic of this site for all of the relevant posts.
—-
Let me just start out this post by stating that I am very frustrated with Comcast. The whole ordeal began with the purchase of a HDTV with a CableCARD slot. The FCC’s Plug and Play TV initiative aims to make the transition to digital television easier. They mandated (can not seem to find the mandate directly from the FCC. If anyone finds it, please post it as a comment below) that cable companies must allow for consumers to use CableCARDs instead of set top boxes if they so choose.
I called Comcast and they sent over a tech who had never been able to get a CableCARD to work. He handed me the card and said that I had to put it in. I inserted the card myself and he noted this on the work order sheet. He called dispatch to hit the card and it did not work. He then asked me if I would step outside of the house to talk to him. I thought this a little weird, but did it. He then started to tell me how the FCC requires them to have CableCARDs available to the customer, it does not require that they work. I have a feeling that he just did not know what he was talking about. The fact that he had me step outside of the house must be some kind of legal issue. He left the card and said to give it a few hours, and I asked him to give me his supervisor’s number which he did.
While the card was supposedly doing its thing, I called Toshiba, the manufacturer of the TV. They let me know that there was a problem with the firmware of the tv and sent me an upgrade. The CableCARD meanwhile never worked, and would not allow me to change the channels on the TV. I popped it out and decided I would just wait.
The upgrade arrived a week later. I installed it and with excitment inserted the card and asked that it be hit to start TV service. It did not work, and so I had them send out techs the next day and asked them to bring a few more CableCARDs for good measure.
Saturday:
I get a call from the techs. The shop is closed on the weekend and so they will not be able to bring more CalbeCARDs. I ask them to come anyhow and try to get the card working and to test signal strength. They arrive 1 1/2 hours after the end of their window of time. The signal stength is good. They cannot get the card working. At their suggestion I decided to use a bos until they could come with more CableCARDs. The first box they try does not work because it is for the wrong area. All they had was a DVR box, they assured me I would not be charged for the DVR and left.
Monday:
I called the supervisor and let him know that no one seems to be able to get the card working. He says that he’ll come tomorrow with a bunch of cards to see what he can do.
Tuesday:
The supervisor comes on-time and tries to get everything working. He eventually has to call the Comcast DAC for the area. This is a number he only knows because one of his wife’s friends works there. This is where we begin to find out about all the problems. The cards have all been coded for the wrong area. Comcast’s front-end at the 1-800 number, and at dispatch is not correctly talking to the backend. All of those hits never even reached the card despite the computers saying that they had been sent.
The DAC sends a hit and the card reboots. It then sends a command to reset the card to the correct area and the card reboots again. Despite all of this the card does not end up working. Feeling that we are ever closer to the solution, the tech says he’ll call tomorrow and we’ll fix it.
Wednesday:
He does not call, so I call and leave a polite voicemail asking him to please call me back, he does not.
Thursday:
I leave another message and ask him to please call, me. He does not.
Friday:
I’ve pretty much given up.
I write this post in the Cable Card experience thread at DSLReports.com. Below is that post:
The tech did not call the other day when he said he would, so I left a polite message asking him to please call. He did not. The next day I left another nice message asking him to call and did not. I am a bit fed up with this whole thing.
Here is my theory as to why this is happening everywhere that Comcast operates. (It seems to be much less of a problem for other cable providers.) Comcast obviously does not want subscribers using CableCARDs. They want to add many different pay services to their boxes. Since the CableCARDs are only one-way, they figure that they will be losing this potential source of revenue.
The FCC requires Comcast and other cable providers to allow their subscribers to use CableCARDs. Comcast figures that if they improperly implement the frontend computer systems, it will be hard for the FCC to prove their wrongdoing, and so frustrating for customers that they’ll give up and get the box.
The motive behind all this is just theory. The part about the front-end systems working incorrectly is absolutely true, at least in the Miami / Coral Gables area. There were multiple failings in my case:
1) Card was coded for different headend despite the techs asking for a Coral Gables CableCARD. The only way we found out was by calling the DAC. The tech only had the number to the DAC because one of his wife’s friends works there. In fact he says that he had never heard of the DAC before he met his wife’s friend.
2) Hits from dispatch and from 1-800-COMCAST were not even being sent out on the wire. The DAC checked and said the hits were not even reaching it. This means that the front-end systems were not sending out the hits, but were reporting that they had.
3) The account is likely coded incorrectly.
4) The techs have not been trained in the least about CableCARD operation. The supervisor / top-ranking tech in my area (the one who is not returning calls) said he had only gotten 1 working so far.
I don’t blame the techs for hating these things. I blame Comcast corporate. These practices need to be investigated by the FCC. Putting up these barriers is against the spirit and idea of the FCC mandate.
I will be drafting a couple of letters, and would like to know who to send them to. One will be my city franchise authority and the city council members. I am not sure who at the FCC should receive the letter. Are there any other relevant agencies to send this letter to?
It is unfair to the customer and the Comcast techs to set up your infrastructure incorrectly. Most customers probably get upset at the techs, and yell at them causing undue stress for both parties. I do not blame the techs. I would be pretty frustrated if time and time again I could not get these cards working. I would be especially upset if the problems were all caused by issues with their computer front-end systems that could easily be reprogrammed and solve a lot of grief. While making these changes they should also establish alternate procedures to get these cards working and send it out as a memo to all of the techs and dispatchers.
Comcast needs to get their act together, I would like to help nudge them in the right direction by alerting the proper authorities.
That about says it all.