Do you pay Comcast an "HD technology fee" for your HTPC?

odd...it is comcast, so who knows...money, money, money.

This is normal for content providers..

I have comcast and pay no such fee - just my subscription and the cablecard fee of $2.00. It sounds like your CC isn't paired properly if you're only getting locals w/out the cabebox.

It must be luck of the draw. I'll let you know on my next cable bill.

BTW, you should not have to pay a cablecard fee of $2. The first one is supposed to be included AND if you say "I am using my own equipment" they should be giving you $2.50 BACK each month.

Comcast tried to get me to pay this $10 HD fee also... They said you can still get the HD channel but to get the "full" HD resolution you have to pay the $10 to get it activated. He obviously didn't know what he was talking about.

I got my Cablecard paired a couple days ago (HDHomerun Prime). It took 4 calls to them as it worked when they "HIT" the card but shut off of course a few minutes after I hung up with them. One lady I got knew what she was doing and performed a different "hit" and added the card to something on my account. The channels stuck and I have been fine with all my HD channels. Call them back and get it paired propperly with someone that knows what they are doing. You may have to call several times.

Can you elaborate in the "using your own equipment" to get the $2.50 back. Do u.mean cablecard vs rented tivo for example?

Call the CableCard Activations dept, at 1-877-405-2298, usually someone will pick up and you wont even have to go through an automated system.

I've got two cable cards for a homerun prime and ceton, each one had the issue where I would only get local channels.

The problem was that the card was not set up with their main system, I think they call it the DMAC or something.

Anyway, the first person you will talk to on that phone number will just try to pair the card, which wont do anything, but just humor them. After that won't work, tell them to escalate it, once its esclated you should be in touch with someone that knows what they are doing, and they can usually fix it pretty quick.

As far as the tech fee goes, I don't see it on my bill, but I do pay 5 bucks for my 2nd card, the first one is free.

Good luck, I hate comcast, but in my area, it's the only thing available.

You should not have to pay an HD tech fee for a Cablecard device, the more likely reason that your premiums do not work is that the card is not properly paired. Usually this is because the Data ID was not entered correctly in their system - if it's wrong, none of the copy-once channels will work.

i get a 2.95 CREDIT to my bill for the cablecard. I do not pay any HD Technology fee.

For Comcast in Chicago, the previous box rental fee was dropped and replaced with a "HD Technology Fee" for $8.95/month. The description is "Whole House Fee Authorizes All HD Capable Outlets IN The Home." (I kept the capitalization as is from the actual bill as IN seems to have special emphasis.)

I will soon be getting a CableCard, so it will be interesting to see what happens with the bill.

Same here in Philadelphia - it's in their published rates. It does include one STB. If you return that STB, they credit your bill $2.50/month, but you still pay the $8.95 HD Technology Fee.

For $2.50/month, I just decided to keep the STB for backup and OnDemand.

In metro Atlanta I do not pay any additional fee and receive a $2.50 credit for using my (free) cablecard. The cablecard connected outlet is they only thing I have with them, no other boxes or activated outlets.

Comcast customer owned equipment policy: http://www.comcast.com/equipmentpolicy/

Stardog - you are correct; we pay no CC fee (for the first one). I have TWC and folks have Comcast so got confused.

However, did you have to do anything special to get the owned equipment credit? I talked at least 4 people on that and they have no clue. Even had one Mgr DENY me the credit b/c they said I get the 1st CC for free already (which has absolutely nothing to do with the credit). Crazy.

With Comcast in Denver, I've been paying $1.10 a month for a cable card fee for a single M-card but I get the $2.50 customer owned equipment credit as well. Since I don't see a corresponding $2.50 equipment charge elsewhere on my bill I guess I shouldn't complain about the cable card fee too much despite this policy from Comcast: http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FA...4-def06cced0db

For giggles I did speak with Comcast CS in Bangalore about this and after a couple of nefarious justifications for the $1.10 charge I got a supervisor (also likely in Bangalore based on her accent) to credit all CC charges to date plus the next six months. The rep noted two serial numbers bound to my card and suggested that might be the reason why I was being billed as if I had a second card. She said she could attempt to fix it but I quickly told her not to (doing so had signal failure written all over it). Update: Upon re-reading my physical bill I'm reasonably confident they do think I have two cards because under the charge for my card is the sub-title: "additional IN same device".

I'll try to get this resolved via email instead but at least I have a short-term fix in place.

Ditto here, it really sucks that some areas get shafted with this bogus HD tech fee if all they have are cards. That fee is only supposed to be charged if you use their boxes.

Well, right now I am not getting the credit. It's not showing on my bill. My fear is calling Comcast will result in this $8.50 "HD Technology Fee" being added to get my $2.50 credit so I might skip it for now.

I can't believe Comcast billing is so f---ed up that no one can get a straight answer on how much stuff costs and what their bill really should be.

So you don't have to pay anything and get 2.50.credit? What is the credit for

The credit is for using my own equipment (Ceton). See the link in post #15 for your credit amount, mine shows the $2.50 credit. I don't pay anything for my only cablecard on my only outlet. I receive all my HD programming without an additional fee.

I have Clear QAM on my other outlet(s), but I don't use it. Instead I have an Xbox 360 Slim connected to the secondary TV and use it as an extender when watching TV.

So, is it 100% certain that if you have a HTPC with Cablecard or a Tivo with Cablecard or a HDHomerun Prime with cablecard and sign up for a TV package such as Digital Starter, you are supposed to get 1 free CableCard plus $2.50 customer owned equipment credit per month and also receive channels like CNN and ESPN in HD for the base price of the TV programming package with no extra $8.50 or $10 per month HD Service Fee or HD Technology Fee in any Comcast market in the US?

If you have two devices such as both a HTPC and a Tivo Series 3 HD, do you only pay for the second CableCard rental and still have no additional HD service fees from Comcast?

No it isn't 100% certain at all. Each market can be different.

How do I find out for Sacramento, CA?
Calling Comcast and talking to a CSR is not reliable. I had to go through 2 different CSRs to have the CableCard fee I was being charged reversed even though it was in pretty plain writing on the Comcast website that the first CableCard is free. The billing statement listed it as "additional CableCard" even though I don't have multiple cards.
The first CSR said I was being charged because it as a "Tivo Card," not a CableCard. The second CSR understood and reversed the prior charges and changed the future billing to reflect $0.00 per month for the card.
I don't have any $2 or $2.50 customer owned equipment credit now. I found the link that says my zip code is eligible for the $2.50 credit, but it is unclear whether the credit applies to Limited Basic subscribers.
I don't pay a Technology Fee or HD Fee now because I only have Limited Basic. I get locals in both SD and HD as part of Limited Basic just as I would with an OTA antenna for free.
I was going to upgrade to Digital Starter to take advantage of a promotion that charges $29.99 months 1-6 and $49.99 months months 7-12. If the advertised rate only includes SD channels of Digital Starter with an additional $8-$10 HD monthly fee to get HD service, I will just stay on Limited Basic. The few extra channels on Digital Starter I would actually watch regularly (ESPN, Fox News and CNN), are not worth that much more per month more to me than I pay now and I don't want to see them in 4:3 or stretched SD.

If you use a CableCARD device instead of a Comcast cable box, you'll receive one-way digital cable channels but not our interactive guide, pay-per-view events or On Demand programming.

Here's how to purchase and install a CableCARD:

CableCARD-ready devices can be purchased at many retail stores.
You'll need a CableCARD to activate your service. Comcast provides CableCARDs for both professional and do-it-yourself installations.
Your first CableCARD is provided at no charge; if you need a second one for the same device, you'll be charged $1.50/month.
A technician is required to install and activate the CableCARD in a TiVo Series 3HD. Chat with us to schedule an appointment.
If you own a CableCARD device with an activated card (and subscribe to a Comcast video service that includes equipment), you'll receive a monthly equipment credit

This was from

Comcast policies (including pricing) vary by market, so posting their web pages means basically nothing. Additionally, that page is out of date because a tech is not required for a CC install now, by FCC mandate.

That might be true that you should eligible for 1 free cable card for every device, plus the credit applied to each device, but a forum post is not proof. The CSRs were trying to charge for even the first card in the first device and were trying to reparse the text on the web site to make it appear that a TiVo was not eligible.
Is there any clear verbiage about HD Techology access fees and which packages are exempt and the max number of customer owned equipment credits and max number of free cable cards that is not subject to reinterpretation by CSRs anywhere on the Comcast site?

Go to this link that was in post #15 and enter your zip code. If you are to receive a credit this link will tell you. Mine shows $2.50 which is exactly what I receive.

http://www.comcast.com/equipmentpolicy/?SCRedirect=true