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http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Cable-Industry-Shucks-Guess-Nobody-Wants-CableCARDs-104768

Please note the last update at the bottom of this post. The issue was once again solved by a firmware update from Toshiba.
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It took more than a month of back and forth to get the CableCARD working in the first place. Once the CableCARD was set up properly and the firmware for the Toshiba TV had been corrected everything was great… for a little more than 4 years. Then came Tuesday, September 8 2009 and everything changed.

If you’ve read my prior posts about Comcast and using a CableCARD you’ll see that it was a huge ordeal to get the CableCARD working in the first place.

The CableCARD is now not working properly. Many channels are working, but there are a large number that do not. When flipping to one of the channels the is not working the TV shows a black screen, then it goes to channel 3 and a message comes up stating the CableCARD is acquiring the channel information. Then once this information has been acquired, the TV changes to channel 1, but sometimes another channel.

I went through all of the HD channels to note which ones do not work. Here is the list:

• SunSports/FSN HD
• ESPNHD
• ESPN2 HD
• TNT HD
• A&E HD
• Food HD
• HGTV HD
• USA HD
• TBS HD
• History HD
• Discovery HD
• Animal Planet HD
• Sci-Fi HD

These are all channels we received before and are entitled to receive. I did not go through all of the standard definition channels, but I did note that ESPN and ESPN2 standard definition also exhibit the same behavior. This is not just limited to HD.

The problem began occurring on Tuesday, September 8 2009.

The same problems we had before getting this to work are now haunting us again. You would think that in 4 years Comcast would figure out how to get a CableCARD fixed and to properly escalate the issue to an engineer when needed.

I wanted to go through the standard channels rather than crying foul and going to higher levels as I had before. The idea was to give Comcast the benefit of the doubt. That was a mistake. Here’s the sequence of events that so far has not solved the problem:

• Called Comcast on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. We did some basic troubleshooting and they “hit” the card several times to no avail. We then scheduled a technician to come on Saturday, September 12, 2009.

  Saturday came and went and no one showed up. We called and whoever we had spoken to on Tuesday never even scheduled the appointment. We insisted someone be sent on Sunday.

• Sunday, a technician arrived, but he was never told this was a CableCARD issue and did not have one in his van. He had them hit the card several times and replaced some splitters in the house that were not faulty.

  The technician was really trying his best and wanted to do something, but the company had kind of screwed him over. He helped us schedule a technician to come on Tuesday, September 15, 2009.

• The technician, a Technical Operations Supervisor, Ryan came on September 15, 2009. He had a CableCARD, but this was just luck as his notes did not specify this was a CableCARD issue. He tried to get it working by trying a new CableCARD as well as hitting the card several times. This did not work.

  He promised to forward our information to an engineer to have the issue resolved. We were to be called by the supervisor shortly.

It is Saturday, September 26, 2009 and the issue has yet to be resolved and we have not heard a thing. This is unacceptable. Why does our city keep renewing your franchise agreement?

Update – Tuesday, September 28, 2009:
We emailled the technician and the engineer, Lazaro, came today. He tried around 8 CableCARDs. He also spoke with the DAC about our setup and everything checked out. There was a recent channel re-alignment that is likely the genesis of this problem. When we originally tried to get the TV working with a CableCARD years ago, there were firmware issues related to frequency response that had to be fixed. We are now getting in touch with Toshiba to check for an update.

We called Toshiba and new firmware is available and is to be shipped to us. Hopefully this will correct the issue.

Update – Monday, October 5, 2009:
The firmware arrived. It is Seine version 1.6.5. I installed it following the instructions Toshiba sent to the letter. The CableCARD is now working perfectly.

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.
Continue reading

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:

1. Call Toshiba. Explain the symptoms that you are having. Let them know that you have a Motorola CableCARD from Comcast.
2. Ask the CSR politely if they would please send you the Seine 1.5.0 update for your television. If they do not know of this update, ask them to have Paul call you back.
3. Wait about a week and a half for the firmware to arrive.
4. Install the firmware following the instructions that arrived with it.
5. If the CableCARD still does not work, call Comcast and schedule to have a technician fix your problem.

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.