Once upon a time jamesrob328i shaped the electrons to say... > The only way I could get a lifetime service TiVo contract on a new > box was to buy it directly from TiVo, so when the Comcast installers
So they're allowing you to transfer the lifetime from your DirecTiVo, or did you get some other deal for lifetime? > showed up with their cablecards they didn't have a TiVo to put them > in, and THEY gave another sales pitch for their own DVR, stating, in > essence "these cablecards are the devil's work; we GUARANTEE you > won't be able to install them yourself." I don't know how much of Oh bullshit. It *should* be a piece of cake. The only reasons it isn't are: 1. Bad cards. Like any other device sometimes you get a bad card. If the cable compaines would test the cards before sending them to customers and would pull bad cards out of the pool, this wouldn't be an issue. 2. Cable companies who don't trains their people. Physically installing the card is dead simple. It shares a physical form factor with PCMCIA. You just stick it in the slot. Done. Before you do that though, you want to write down the numbers on the card - there is usually some card ID on the card. You'll need that. And once it is inserted you need the Host ID, Card ID, and MAC address given on screen. All it takes it typing those numbers into the right fields in the database - *correctly*. Having been through a few installs myself the problems tend to me techs who don't know what they need to do and/or don't transcribe the numbers correctly. I always make sure to write them down myself and listen to what they'll calling in and correct them. When done correctly it is simple. I've installed cards myself and managed to get around Charter's official policies by establishing a contact in my local office. I just send her the correct numbers and that's all it takes. I find that a lot of cable techs dislike new systems, especially when they aren't trained on them. (And I can't really blame them for that.) But they'll tend to blame the technology for any issues, not their lack of experience. I know more about CableCARDs than any of the Charter techs I've met over the past couple of years. I end up teaching them about the technology. They've generally been nice guys, but clearly haven't been trained - just given the cards and sent out in the field to learn on the job. That leads to mistakes, and the mistakes lead to frustration - and they blame the cards. > that is "market your own stuff" bravado (I'd told them I knew I > could use either one M or two S cards in my box, and they responded > that there WAS only one kind of cablecard). Two possibilities; 1. Most likely - lack of training. They've probably never been told about S-Cards and M-Cards. Just 'CableCARDs' - one size fits all. So they don't know there are different types of cards. 2. It could be your local office doesn't have M-Cards yet. I haven't checked in a few months, but as of a couple of months ago my local Charter MSO only had S-Cards - no M-Cards available at all. So the techs still didn't know about M-Cards since they didn't have them. SOme people in the office knew, and that's who told me they didn't have them yet. > Are they the nuisance the cable companies want users to believe, or > is simply that they lose the ability to collect extra revenue from > their proprietary boxes? CableCARDs *have* been a hassle for the cable companies - in the same way that any wholesale new technology implementation is going to be a hassle. They've had to update their head ends to support it, and with the plethora of different head end systems that hasn't been simple for them. But that's largely complete now. Most of the trouble has been their own fault. They didn't invest in training, which has lead to confusion and mistakes, which has in turn resulted in a lot of trouble in the field early on. But that isn't the fault of the technology. When installed correctly it works just fine, and it really isn't hard ot install. Over time, as they install more of the cards, they're getting used to them and gaining experience. So the problems are reduced. I was one of the first people to get CableCARDs installed in my area, and I was *the* first person to have them in a TiVo (I was a reviewer for the S3 so I had it before it went on sale) - so that really confused them. Fortunately I knew the technology and walked them through it. I had to swap the TiVos and that meant re-homing the cards in the new unit. They goofed and did not update the Host IDs like they said they did, which caused some problems. I diagnosed the issue, but they insisted on sending out a tech. He didn't believe me, and instead of just checking the Host IDs first he spent 2+ hours troubleshooting everything else until he ran out of ideas. Then, I think just to shut me up, he had them check the Host IDs. They were wrong. They fixed them, and the problems went away. Gee. He was a little chagrinned. The technology is fine. -MZ -- megazone-at-megazone.org http://www.MegaZone.org/ Gweep, Geek, Human, me. http://www.TiVoLovers.com/ http://www.Eyrie-Productions.com/ -><- Hail Eris "A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men" 508-852-2171
