Memphis, TN - HDTV - Page 199

Originally Posted by fastoy

I live in Southaven, MS just south of Sam's. I have a TiVo Premiere. Today my 803 and 810 started getting "Searching for signal on this cable channel..." Of course the 1xxx channels are still dead. After trying to talk to a Comcast rep. in the Phillipines, I hung up on her and started an online chat. At first he said it must be an in-house wiring problem then he went and read the notes on my area. He came back and said that the head end was being worked on and that channels would come and go until they were done?

Is anyone else in the Southaven/Olive Branch area seeing this problem? Did you get any better information from Comcast?

Originally Posted by fastoy

I live in Southaven, MS just south of Sam's. I have a TiVo Premiere. Today my 803 and 810 started getting "Searching for signal on this cable channel..." Of course the 1xxx channels are still dead. After trying to talk to a Comcast rep. in the Phillipines, I hung up on her and started an online chat. At first he said it must be an in-house wiring problem then he went and read the notes on my area. He came back and said that the head end was being worked on and that channels would come and go until they were done?

Is anyone else in the Southaven/Olive Branch area seeing this problem? Did you get any better information from Comcast?

Originally Posted by 4UTVOLS

No signal for 803 or 810 on my TiVo Premiere here in Olive Branch for the past few days.

Originally Posted by fastoy

Before the Comcast service guy showed up this morning I called Comcast and had them re-pair the CableCARD with no improvement. The telephone rep. seemed like he knew what he was doing.

The Comcast service guy came Saturday morning. He said that Comcast had recently moved channels 803 and 810 to frequency 117 to make room for more channels. 117 is problematic.

When he would put his box on the cable line and set it to frequency 117 it would beep a couple of times while showing "Locking" and then lock onto the signal. He said that this was indicative of a problem.

He mumbled "Makes me confused" in a heavy accent for a while then went outside to the pedestal.

After almost 2 hours he declared that there was a problem with the "X" node and he would have to open a maintenance ticket. He said they tell him to tell the customer that it will take 3-5 days to resolve a maintenance issue.

I wonder what the geographic coverage of the "X" node is?

As a side issue I mentioned that I have occasional artifacting on 805. He said that he lives on Clarington in Southaven (less than 2 miles from me) and has the same problem. He said that when his wife is watching 805 he has to switch it to 5. He said he has talked to Comcast Maintenance about this and they said there is a "kink" in the cable that connects the "X" node.

He said that the 1000s are supposed to light up in July.

Incidentally my daughter on College Rd in Olive Branch has same situation as 4UTVOLS. Comcast HD STB gets 803 and 810 but TiVo Elite doesn't. They haven't called Comcast.

Originally Posted by 4UTVOLS

Called customer service and had them do a cable card re-pair on my TiVo Premiere on Sat (4/21) and still no signal on channel 803/810. Just sent a tweet to @comcastcares with description of this issue and link to this thread. Lets see if that helps at all.

Originally Posted by fastoy

Good idea. i hadn't thought of that.

My theory is that the newer CableCARDs don't tolerate the marginal conditions of "frequency 117" (what is that?). I asked the service rep. yesterday if he had another CableCARD that he could swap for me. He grumbled that his dispatcher hadn't told him he was dealing with a CableCARD customer.

I may take my current CableCARD to the Comcast store Monday and see if they'll swap it for me.

To validate my theory can you tell what series/rev. you have in your two TiVos since one works and one doesn't? Don't tear anything up to do that. Maybe you can tell something from TiVo Central / Settings and Messages / Account & System Info / CableCARD Decoder / CableCARD options (for installers) / CableCARD Menu and then somewhere. On Cisco CableCARD CA Screen I see that the Secure Micro Software Ver. is 3.14. I have no clue as to whether that is pertinent or not.

Originally Posted by 4UTVOLS

Just checked and both of my TiVo's have Secure Micro Software Ver. is 3.14 on the Cable Card. I also confirmed that the TiVo HD still gets 803/810 ok and the TiVo Premiere still does not.

Originally Posted by fastoy

As 4UTVOLS suggested I tweeted to @comcastcares yesterday (4/22). @comcastmichael replied and asked me to send my account information to we_can_help@comcast.com. I did with a link to the AVS Forum thread.

Today (4/23) at noon I got a call from Derrick (901/259-xxxx) at Comcast in Memphis. He said that a tech had been assigned and was working on the problem at their head-end. He said to give it until in the morning (4/24). He said I could call him back directly for updates.

@4UTVOLS: I PM'd you his direct #.

Originally Posted by 4UTVOLS

Just checked and 803 and 810 are back online on my TiVo Premiere.

Originally Posted by bmurphr1

Anybody use a Ceton InfiniTV 4 or a SiliconDust PRIME with Comcast? I just purchased two SiliconDust PRIME's and I also have a spare InfiniTV 4 (which I probably won't use and will slap on eBay) because of a letter Comcast sent us a week or two ago. I was using expanded analog cable but since they're ditching all analog channels above Ch. 19 I have to either use their crappy STBs or my own CableCARD setup. Hoping that when I get ready to switch that I can just go to Comcast and pick up two M-cards without any fuss.

Originally Posted by miklk1973

I have the InfitiTV4. You can pick up a card and install it on your own. Just be prepared to work on the install for 2-3 days via phone with Comcast. Seems the pairing never goes right. When it works its great otherwise. I built a new pc for media center and have 5 extenders connected to it. I love not having boxes and being able to configure my channel line up how I want. There are channels I don't watch and like the ability to completely remove them. I have a HD homerun Dual that in that I used to supplement the Ceton with 2 additional turners that could use OTA or the in the clear channels (mostly SD). They may not be in the clear any longer since the big push to DTA's has occurred. I need to set it back up.

The cable card is probably not for everyone. It requires more work and knowledge than connecting a coax to a box but everything you probably need to know is easily found online. I knew nothing about it when I started. dissatisfaction lead me down a long path of TIVO (which I still operate as a back up), and extensive research to the Moxi DVR. I decided Media Center was the way to go for me.

You have be be willing to be patient if you are a channel flipper. Channel changing is slower than with a box. Surf tv using the guide. You need Ethernet to the extenders also. You will be unhappy with wireless. I use it to my bathroom but only view SD channels and the occasion glitch is acceptable in the bathroom. It's for listening to news in the mornings mostly.

Later this year Ceton is releasing the Q and Echo systems which will use Win7 embeded. I will gladly buy these based on the demo's I have seen. Give them a look over.

http://cetoncorp.com/products/ceton_q/

http://cetoncorp.com/products/echo/


I also enjoy having Radiotime in media center to stream endless content through the set up in every room. I have favorites for several streams i like and even to play some NPR shows via various NPR stations.


I am glad to guide you to the darkside!

It's nice not paying extra money to Comcast. All my recordings and all channels SD and HD on all TVs in my home.

Originally Posted by bmurphr1

That makes me glad to hear that somebody else is using the CableCARD route. I half-way expected to have to battle it out with Comcast over getting some CableCARDs activated, which I can deal with. I originally planned on using the InfiniTV 4 in my living room HTPC and the other computers in the house would connect to it for cable access, but that setup only has an 802.11n dongle attached to it and I'm sure that's not enough bandwidth to support quad tuners over the air.

The best part of using CableCARDs is that my bill instead of becoming higher with the addition of digital cable, it'll actually save me around 40 dollars a month with an increase in internet speed.

Originally Posted by EngDave 

To all Comcast customers if you are using a QAM tuner to recieve WMC you will need to rescan to find the channels. They made a minor change last night that will facilitate you rescanning to find WMC again. Please give us a call if you have any issues finding WMC with your QAM tuner. 901-726-0555

Originally Posted by 4UTVOLS 

So now that Comcast is sending out the voice mail notifications for the digital conversion in Desoto, County (at least to Olive Branch), I wonder how long it will be before they light up the additional HD channels.

Originally Posted by fastoy 

My daughter in Belmor Lakes (Olive Branch) now has had all the 1xxx channels lit up for a couple of weeks. 1613 (NBC Olympic Soccer) didn't work (got "not authorized") on oldest TiVo (TiVo Premiere XL4). On 08/09/12 the 2xx channels (Sprout, NikJr, etc) began getting "not authorized." Other (newer) TiVo and Cisco STB worked fine on all channels. Oh, the content is still on the 7xx and 8xx channels.
I worked with Comcast and they suggested that I exchange the CableCARD on the TiVo Premiere XL4. I did that today and re-paired the new CableCARD (don't call anybody but 877-405-2298 to pair CableCARD). That fixed it. I wonder if there's something that Comcast is doing now that requires a higher rev of CableCARD?
I live in Southaven south of Sam's and I haven't seen any changes recently. Since my TiVo (hence CableCARD) is even older I'm tempted to go exchange it and see what that does.

Originally Posted by Tom Thomas 

I had Comcast out last week and they told me they were working westward from Olive Branch. I live near Goodman Rd. and Hwy 301 in Walls. They said the new channels should be available to me any time now.

Originally Posted by Tom Thomas 

The new HD channels were all there last night. Looks like Comcast was ahead of their estimated date for my area.
I am about 2 miles east of Hwy 61 just off of Goodman Rd in N Mississippi