Is My M-Card not setup correctly?

[vod1]

I just upgraded my TiVo series 1 w/ Lifetime to a TiVo HD. I called for my appointment and asked for 2 cable cards for my TiVo. When the installer arrived he installed 2 S-cards and I asked if they had M-Cards yet and he said not yet but they will be available soon (Later I realized that he was probably confused and thought that I asked about 2-way cards). He left we me with my 2 S-cards and they didn't seem to be working right but he suggested that I give them some time to sync.

After 24 hours they still weren't working and we called TWC again and they setup another appt. The second tech removed the 2 S-cards and replaced it with 1 M-card after we couldn't get them working. It took a few calls to the activation dispatcher and the Head-end before the M-card received the Authorization. I still wasn't getting all the channels that I did with the STB and he said that it was an issue with TWC that they are aware of.

So now I'm trying to figure out if TWC is really broken or if I'm still not set up correctly. I pay for premium HBO and Cinemax, and none of those channels come in (not in the 701 range or 1880 range). I'm also not getting the new HD channels that they just introduced like FoodTV HD and National Geo HD.

Was that information that the installer said that some of the HD channels are never going to be tuned? or is my card just not getting the correct authorizations sent?

[Skaggs]

vod1 said:

I pay for premium HBO and Cinemax, and none of those channels come in (not in the 701 range or 1880 range). I'm also not getting the new HD channels that they just introduced like FoodTV HD and National Geo HD.

Was that information that the installer said that some of the HD channels are never going to be tuned? or is my card just not getting the correct authorizations sent?

All the new HD channels...and some of the SD ones, too... are using Switched Digital Video (SDV) technology, which makes them unavailable to cable card users. You should read the thread concerning SDV channels. I have a list posted there with all the SDV channels that I am aware of.

You should get all the HBO and Cinemax channels, except the ones using SDV, which are the west coast feeds and the Cinemax HD channels. Agian take a look at the SDV channel list to see which ones you won't get with a cable card.

TiVo has stated a "dongle" type device will be released in the 2nd quarter of 2008 that will enable cable card viewers to receive SDV channels. Until then, us TiVo users are S.O.L.

[hurnik]

vod1 said:

I just upgraded my TiVo series 1 w/ Lifetime to a TiVo HD. I called for my appointment and asked for 2 cable cards for my TiVo. When the installer arrived he installed 2 S-cards and I asked if they had M-Cards yet and he said not yet but they will be available soon (Later I realized that he was probably confused and thought that I asked about 2-way cards). He left we me with my 2 S-cards and they didn't seem to be working right but he suggested that I give them some time to sync.

After 24 hours they still weren't working and we called TWC again and they setup another appt. The second tech removed the 2 S-cards and replaced it with 1 M-card after we couldn't get them working. It took a few calls to the activation dispatcher and the Head-end before the M-card received the Authorization. I still wasn't getting all the channels that I did with the STB and he said that it was an issue with TWC that they are aware of.

So now I'm trying to figure out if TWC is really broken or if I'm still not set up correctly. I pay for premium HBO and Cinemax, and none of those channels come in (not in the 701 range or 1880 range). I'm also not getting the new HD channels that they just introduced like FoodTV HD and National Geo HD.

Was that information that the installer said that some of the HD channels are never going to be tuned? or is my card just not getting the correct authorizations sent?

Yeah, that's basically correct. And from what I hear on the Tivo forums, because our TW uses Scientific Atlanta cards, it may be even longer for a tuning resolver to be available (rumor has it SA hasn't even STARTED working on anything yet).

In the meantime, you have to decide to pay the $15/month for the crappy SA HD DVR that actually gets channels that you pay for, or pay $15/month for your Tivo HD (plus the $300 for the unit itself), plus the additional $1.75/month cable card and NOT get all the channels you pay for.

IMO, I think the cable companies are doing an end-run around the FCC Cable card mandate, but the FCC obviously doesn't give a rats behind about that and apparently Tivo is perfectly happy with the 'tuning resolver" situation even though I highly doubt we'll see it in Q2 of 2008. Or that it'll be free.