Posts Tagged ‘CableCARDs’

2009: The Year Entropy Accelerated

By Chief Oddball on November 6th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

Filed under Journal, Rants ··· 3 Comments

As the ill-fated 2009 starts to wind itself down, it’s making it more clear than ever that it’s not going to let us forget how much pain and suffering it inflicted on us all. Some more than others, obviously, but by-and-large it’s been a pretty depressing year. My family in particular was hit harder by more cataclysmic events at once than at any point in my lifetime, with my dad losing his job due to the slowing economy, the deaths of two family members (just a month apart, no less) and a myriad of other problems besides.

Although Apple and I have fared pretty well in comparison to many other Americans — even other members of our families — we’ve still received a disproportionate amount of negative reinforcement from The Powers That Be. This week, in particular, was like a microcosm of that very idea, presenting us with one out-of-left-field event after another: breakdowns, unforeseen events, ridiculous instances of lightning striking twice. The Second Law of Thermodynamics seems to have conspired against us to accelerate entropy to an almost comical level.

I used to do a lot of bitching on this blog. Not so much anymore. But today is one of those days where I feel like if I don’t get it off my chest here, I’ll take it out on someone who doesn’t deserve it, so away we go with a little old-fashioned rant.

Forfeiting the Comcast Battle (But Not Quite the War)

My seemingly eternal struggle with Comcast over the billing and service for my TiVo HD came to an anti-climactic end early this week. (You can follow the history of the saga here.) After apparently getting a solution from corporate to the two HD service fees I was getting charged — one for each CableCARD in my TiVo — the celebration came to an abrupt halt last weekend when my second tuner lost all HD service. Again.

Sick and tired of it, I bypassed phone support altogether and filed another corporate complaint. This time, however, despite the corporate head office’s agreement with my position, the “corporate liaison officer” at our local Comcast department gave me a call to say there was nothing that can be done. In my area, she explained, the billing system requires that a separate HD service charge be assessed on each single-stream CableCARD. So, if I want HD service on both tuners of my DVR, I have to pay for it twice. And that’s that.

So I asked her, if Comcast would offer me a multi-stream CableCARD to replace my two single-stream cards, would I only pay one HD fee despite getting the exact same service? She said yes. Of course, Comcast still doesn’t have multi-stream CableCARDs here. As a result, I pay twice as much for the same service, because of their lack of equipment. Oh, that’s really nice; I’m so glad I could help. Is that extra money I’m paying you going to finance, say, acquisition of any fucking multi-stream CableCARDs, by any chance? (The woman did say that multi-stream cards were currently being tested and would be offered to us early next year, but I’ll believe that when I can hold one in my hands.)

As a consolation, the Comcast corporate liaison officer told me that they’re already crediting me for the extra $6.95 HD service charge by lowering our second CableCARD fee to $1.50, because it’s normally like 8 bucks. Huh? According to Comcast’s own CableCARD FAQ, the second card fee can be only “up to $2.05.” They’re saving me 55 cents, not $6.95. And if you check that same link, you’ll see that I wouldn’t even be paying a second card fee if I just had a multi-stream card. That’s another $1.50 I wouldn’t be paying if Comcast could offer current equipment.

But by this point I had had it. I’m sorry, I really had. I just can’t do this fucking song and dance anymore. I told the woman to just go ahead and restore service to my second CableCARD, and I’ll pay their extra $6.95 monthly fee. What else am I gonna do? At some point you have to recognize that it’s just seven fucking dollars. I will be hounding them next year to make sure I’m one of the first people to get a multi-stream card — assuming that wasn’t just a line of bull — but until then, I have more important things to deal with.

Speaking of which…I’m just getting started.

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That Got Their Attention

By Chief Oddball on October 23rd, 2009 at 4:41 pm

Filed under Journal ··· 2 Comments

I recently complained here about the problems we’ve been having with our Comcast service, both Internet and TV related. The gist of it is this: The underground line from the drop box to our home had degraded to the point where our service was being partially or completely interrupted. Almost three weeks ago I finally got a technician to identify the problem and schedule a line replacement, but I had been waiting for the work to be done ever since. Permits had to be pulled, utilities flagged, etc.

After some time went by, I started calling Comcast to see if they could tell me when the repairs would be happening. After all, when the line gets replaced, my Internet is going down. Since I telecommute, this could mean that I’d need to pack up and go work elsewhere for the day, and I wanted to be prepared. Each time I’d call in, they’d tell me that the job was scheduled for sometime in the next few days. So I’d copy my work files to a portable hard drive and get ready to leave on a moment’s notice. But when those days went by with no results, I’d call again, and they’d give me another date which was magically a few more days away. Meanwhile, my wife Apple and I were starting to miss our shows because we were getting no digital or HD channels whatsoever (and the analogs were so snowy as to be unwatchable).

Then, this week, yet another Comcast problem arose. We got our latest bill, and found we were once again getting mis-charged for our TiVo HD. The billing for the TiVo and its two CableCARDs has always been unnecessarily complicated in this area, requiring that manual discount codes and other crap be applied to our bill to make the charges come out right. But this month those credits were gone, and we saw we were being billed two HDTV service fees — one for each CableCARD — despite the fact that both cards are in a single box.

This has happened before, and fixing it is never fun. I have to call Comcast’s customer service number and try to explain the whole situation until they work whatever magic is necessary to sort it out. I never know exactly what steps they take to fix it, which is maddening because I can’t give them guidance on how to do it right. Which I’d love to do, because they often fix it wrong (by simply removing one of my CableCARDs from the account, thereby deleting all service access on one of the TiVo’s two tuners), screwing up the level of service I get on my other standard-def TV, and a host of other possible outcomes. But I’ve always managed to — eventually — get things sorted.

Not this time. Despite calling in on several occasions and talking to different people each time, Comcast’s support folks continually assured me that their billing me two HDTV service charges was correct. One guy even said that his notes on TiVo customers indicated that this was how the account should be set up, and that he was required to bill me for HDTV service on each CableCARD because I was getting all the HD channels on each tuner.

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Loving the TiVo HD

By Chief Oddball on January 11th, 2008 at 4:15 pm

Filed under Journal ··· 1 Comment

After all the hell I went through to get it working, I have to say that Apple and I are really loving the TiVo HD. The other day we went through the list of upcoming HD movies and selected several to record. There were a few others that I thought about recording, but did not. Lo and behold, since I had suggestions turned on, the TiVo was smart enough to pick those up for me too. As if to say, “Hey, I saw you were on the fence about these, decided to go ahead and get ‘em for you anyway. Enjoy!”

Last night I watched Full Metal Jacket in HD. Today, I see TiVo suggested that I might like to see Wayne’s World in HD, too. Oh, hell yes I would! Hey there, Mr. Donut Head Man, who’s trying to kill ya?

And the picture quality is so much better than the old Comcast crap-box, that today while I was watching something in standard definition, Apple comes over and asks, “Is that high-def?” Heh…nope! But it sure looks good, doesn’t it?

Totally satisfied. Big thanks to my parents (and grandmother!) who contributed to giving us this gift. You guys are going to love yours, trust me — it’s worth it.

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TiVolution!

By Chief Oddball on January 9th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

Filed under Journal ··· 2 Comments

Today was Comcast’s third (and last) chance at sending a technician out to put working CableCARDs in my TiVo HD — last chance, that is, before I escalated it up to a supervisor. Fortunately, with about 15 minutes left to spare before the expiration of the appointment window, the tech appeared at the door.

The only problem was, I was in the middle of a 3-hour conference call at work, wherein we were training the sales and support staff on how to use the new online store and CRM system we’ve built. The meeting was important enough that I didn’t dare leave, but after waiting this long for a Comcast tech to show up, I didn’t dare send the guy away, either. So, what ensued for the next 45 minutes was a ridiculous series of events: Listening into a cell phone with one ear, the Comcast guy with the other ear. Manipulating the GoToMeeting on my laptop screen with one hand, and the TiVo remote with my other hand. All-in-all, more dexterity than I’ve been called upon to muster since I last picked up a pair of drum sticks.

Today’s cable technician knew nothing, repeat nothing, about CableCARDs, which was the first thing he admitted to me when he came in. He was an amiable fellow, but he possessed only the bare minimum knowledge of the job. Thus, I must thank the very helpful folks at the TiVo Community Forums for teaching me practically everything I know — for without that knowledge, today’s experiment would surely have ended in another failure. As the tech himself complained about how they send him out to do jobs that the customer could easily do himself by phone (yeah — assuming your employer would deign to let me talk to someone who’s actually trained properly!), I ran through the diagnostics screens and gave him instructions on what to do next.

We replaced both CableCARDs and started fresh. The first card worked pretty much straight away. The second one did not, but unlike my last installation appointment, this time I knew it wasn’t going to magically start functioning on its own. I prodded the tech to call back into the head-end and ask the woman there to read back the Card ID and Host ID numbers to verify they were correct. Sure enough, the Host ID had been miskeyed. So we got that fixed, and sent a re-initialization hit to CableCARD 2.

The init signal didn’t take, so the woman at the head-end (who was now talking to me directly through the tech’s cellphone, while he simply held it up) told me to take the card out and put it back in. After which, she repeated the initial setup on that card. This time, it started to work. I ran the channel test and confirmed I was getting everything I was supposed to, on both tuners.

At last! The CableCARDs are working!

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Komcast Kops

By Chief Oddball on January 5th, 2008 at 10:46 pm ··· 2 Comments

Comcast missed my third CableCARD service call today. This is the second appointment in a row where the tech just plain hasn’t shown up, despite assurances to the contrary. Last time I had the 5pm-9pm window. Today I had the 1pm-5pm window. For my newly-rescheduled appointment, set for Wednesday the 9th, I got the 10am-12pm window.

I’m beginning to think that the guy is seeing “CableCARD” on the work order and just skipping me. These bums.


TiVo Bliss Postponed Again…

By Chief Oddball on January 3rd, 2008 at 11:19 am ··· Leave a Comment

The cable guy never showed up for my CableCARD reinstallation appointment yesterday, so I had to call up and reschedule for later. The soonest I could get was Saturday. At first they offered me the damned 5pm-9pm slot again, but I demanded something else and they immediately gave me 1pm-5pm on the same day. Why do they start by offering that useless evening timeslot when they know they have something else?

Anyway, I’ll hopefully have more TiVo news to post as the weekend winds down.


TiVo HD, Comcast and CableCARDs

By Chief Oddball on January 1st, 2008 at 11:12 pm

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First off, welcome to 2008. I mostly don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but if I were to make one, it would be “post on Oddball Update more often.” I seem to have mostly gotten the rest of my house in order, at least in terms of no longer working myself to death, trying not to get upset about petty things, and having a positive outlook toward the future that life may bring me. I have, however, been rather neglectful of this site lately, so I’ll see if I can do something to change that. It’s the first day of the new year and I’m posting, so that’s a start. I hesitate to pledge to post once a day or anything like that, since that’s largely just setting myself up to fail, but more than once a week would at least be nice.

TiVo HD

With 2008 barely a day old, I’m already surrounded by technology aplenty. We celebrated a somewhat laid-back Christmas this year, but were joined by my parents here in Florida for the occasion, which was great. They generously gifted Apple and I with a new TiVo HD and a lifetime service subscription, which was beyond awesome. It didn’t take long before I had it set up, with both tuners resolving the full slate of analog channels with absolutely no problem.

However, in order to receive digital and HD channels — the TiVo HD’s raison d’être — it needs to be equipped with CableCARDs. These small devices, which are very similar to PCMCIA cards, essentially do all the heavy lifting that your cable box does: receiving and decrypting digital, HD and premium channels from your cable company. In fact, they serve the same purpose as a cable box, without the “box” part. By placing two of them in a TiVo, one for each tuner, you activate the TiVo’s ability to access your full channel lineup directly.

It sounds simple enough, but like so much else about technology, it oftentimes isn’t. I am now experiencing one of those “not so simple” times.

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