Los Angeles, CA - TWC - Page 265

I can't use Start Over/Look Back because it's still not working.


Caller ID feature. I'm not subscribed to TWC Voice so I can't say if it works.

Thanks TWC dallas is getting Start Over/Lookback on the Iguide Boxes in September and hopefully that includes the caller id you show on the main main menu.

The only changes lately for North Texas are channel changes:

Add:
AYM Sports
CBTV Michoacan
Cine Mexicano
Discovery Familia
Once TV
Mexico 22
Teleformula
Viendo Movies
Lifetime HD (added today) Seems to be a nationwide TWC add. Has TWC los angeles added it yet?
ESPN Deportes HD (added today)

Move to digital:
CSPAN 2
CSPAN 3
TXCN
Public Access
Government Access 2
Educational Access 1
Educational Access 2
Educational Access 3

Can someone explain to me why TCM-HD's 1.78:1 movies are windowpaned? Not as bad as SD, more like a 1:66 frame.

Nope.

Programming Alerts page shows that it will be on 450, but as of right now it doesn't appear to have been added.

As for myself, I'd rather see an upgrade of the original flawed/bug-ridden A28 iGuide software version we were given initially that has yet to ever be replaced. The rest of the Comcast-supported country has latest A28 with lots of fixes, and we're still running the August 2009 software here in TWC/LA.

I should probably ask in the 3400 thread, but I'll try here first. I just noticed that there isn't an output option of 1080/60, only 1080i/30. Didn't there used to be? Was this changed in the last firmware update?

Well a month after TWC activated SDV here and added a few dozen new HD channels, i've been having a problem almost every day or evening - when i change to an SDV channel on my Tivo Series 3 i very often get a black screen with the message "This channel is temporarily unavailable. Press SELECT to try tuning to this channel again....." on dozens of channels on TWC's SDV channels list, but when i press SELECT it still won't tune to any of them. Then five minutes later i try again and now i can tune to most of them (but not all). The LED on my Tuning Adapter is solid green the whole time. While all this is going on, i am able to tune to these channels just fine on my 8300HD sitting right next to my Tivo S3. Tivo has only missed one scheduled recording in the past month, and one other time it missed the first several minutes of a race but then started recording after a few laps.

I've called TWC several times and they can't explain or figure out why this is happening, so i'm now thinking that my problem may be caused because i'm running a pair of 4-year-old TWC one-way S-Cards, and i've requested that they come and swap in a pair of newer two-way M-Cards instead and see if that fixes my inability to tune to these channels - this is scheduled for tomorrow evening.

Another issue me and a few nearby neighbors are having on our 8300HDs since SDV was activated a month ago - when we tune to an HD channel we get a graphic on the screen saying this channel is temporarily unavailable, and to press A to try again (which still doesn't tune the channel). This doesn't happen nearly as often as it does on my Tivo S3 though, and only seems to happen in the evening and night time. It's as if they don't even have enough bandwidth for their own equipment now that they've added those two dozen new HD channels. This NEVER used to happen in the twenty years i've had TWC until last month when they activated SDV and added the two dozen new HD channels. TWC went from being virtually flawless to being extremely frustrating ever since flipping the SDV switch.

Boy i wish DirecTV and Tivo would hurry up and work out their partnership issues so i can return this Tivo to Costco and get my $700 cash refund and dump TWC once and for all. I'm willing to switch to DirecTV if i can't get my Tivo/CableCard/SDV issues resolved - i have friends in high places at D* and i can get a great deal

I have a similar problem with the DCX3400 losing its SDV server IP address every once and awhile and having to reboot the box for it to pick it back up. I wonder if this is a bug with i guide A28 78.44-xx or firmware 24.07?

I rarely have any issue with SDV other than the normal go to turn the TV on to a channel that is Switched and it is on another channel that is SDV but the guide is still for the original SDV channel I believe this is part of the feature for the SDV system in which it tunes to the new SDV channel on the same SDV QAM if the channel you are on is reclaimed. I have seen the to keep watching this channel press ok/select on the iguide prompt but it is very rare to see it.

recently the QAMs my node has for SDV TSIDs changed don't know if this has to deal with utilization.

Just in passing, I'm not sure that either the S-cards or M-cards are "2-way". I had always thought that they were both "1-way", and do not support any of the pay-per-view or related on-demand services which require 2-way communication. I may be wrong here, if you're theoretically able to use Tivo for pay-per-view.

In particular, the S-card are "single tuner" cards intended for single-tuner cablecard-enabled devices, like TV's with a cablecard slot. This enables the TV to receive encrypted channels from the cable company.

The M-cards are similar in purpose, except that they support up to 4 tuners simultaneously (e.g. installed in a Ceton 4-tuner card, in my HTPC). Again, they do not support pay-per-view type or other 2-way interactive services but they do support up to 4 tuners in a single device. In fact, there's an M-card locked into the Motorola DVRs to serve the dual-tuners in those boxes.

I don't know if devices designed for S-cards (e.g. TV's, old single-tuner Tivo's?) can accept an M-card as a replacement, or if they must use S-cards.

My understanding is that the Tivo HD supports both M-Cards and S-Cards, while the S3 only supports S-Cards.

I believe you're right - the TWC CSR said something about 2-way during our CableCard discussion and i think the term i should have used to describe the M Card is "Multi-Stream", not 2-way. It's the Tuning Adapter that handles the 2-way communication between the Tivo and TWC's head end.

The TWC CSR (a real live American who actually sounded knowledgeable about Tivo and CableCards) indicated that their newer M Cards might play nicer with their new SDV network than my old S Cards are, and recommended a truck roll to check my setup and signal. At first i declined, but they don't charge to come out and they can come after i get home from work, and i'm hoping he can check my for problems with my TA or maybe replace it so i requested a visit. Maybe the tech knows some tricks to get all this stuff working better.



I've been led to understand that the M Cards will physically fit into my Tivo Series 3 slots, but will only stream one signal per card since each of the Tivo's two tuners have their own CableCard slot (each card will act like a single stream card). The newer Tivo HD and current Tivo Premier have only one CableCard slot and do use a single M Card to feed both internal tuners.

Per a response i got on the Tivo Community Forum, i moved my Tuning Adapter's cable from the 3.5db output on my TWC splitter to the 7db output and i was then able to tune to virtually all the problematic channels without issue, and the few channels that say are temporarily available can now be tuned by pressing SELECT, which has never worked before. And a few times pressing SELECT didn't work so i did channel up/channel down and the channel then tuned in ok. I've been changing channels for the past half hour and now channel tuning 95% reliable, where it was about 50% reliable in the past weeks.

But last night right before i moved the cables on the splitter i'd gotten an automated call from TWC saying they found and corrected a "Network Issue" and my "services should now be restored", and asked if i wanted to cancel tomorrow's truck roll which i declined. I have been insisting that they're having a network problem since most of these new channels are also not tuning on my 8300HD (as well as a few neighbors' 8300HDs) since they activated SDV last month. So now i don't know if my newly improved situation is because of moving the cable on my splitter from 3.5 to 7, or if the problem was just fixed at TWC's head end and moving the splitter feeds had nothing to do with it.

When the tech arrives tonight, i'll ask him if there would be any benefit to switching to new M Cards, or if i should just keep my old S Cards. So now i don't know if my newly improved channel tuning situation is because of moving from 3.5 to 7, or if it was already fixed at TWC's head end and moving the splitter feeds had nothing to do with it. I also might have him try a different Tuning Adapter in case mine has some sort of intermittent problem.

Is this a 3-way splitter? I have one of those as well in my house.

However it's not 3.5db and 7db... it's -3.5db LOSS on one output, and -7db LOSS on the other two outputs. I believe that internally they split the input once, with one side going to the -3.5db output, and then they split the other side a second time, producing two -7db outputs.

So if anything, I would think that sending one of your -7db outputs to a TV-like device would be providing LESS signal than using the -3.5db output as you had been doing. As to whether that would produce better results than before with your Tivo (if that's the receiving device), well I don't know. Maybe your were "overloading" the Tivo with -3.5db.

I know that I had trouble with my own home's setup when I didn't realize one of the -7db outputs was going to my cable modem for Internet. I had terrible intermittent behavior with my Internet access (e.g. cable modem would arbitrarily re-boot itself, temporary outages, etc.) until I had TWC come out to look into the problem. He asked me immediately if I had a 3-way splitter, and we examined where the three outputs went. Apparently the two -7db outputs SHOULD have gone to my two TV nodes (one a Moto DCH3416 DVR and the other my Ceton 4-tuner HTPC), and the -3.5db output SHOULD have gone to the cable modem.

Apparently, the TV-side of things requires less signal to function and is still well within tolerance at -7db input level, whereas the cable modem is much less tolerant of marginal signal strength and thus should always be given the highest output from the splitter. Certainly the measurements and diagnostics performed by the Ceton card state that my input signal to it is "lower than recommended", but apparently it's still "minimally acceptable". The DCH3416 showed no problem whatsoever at -7db.

Anyway, as to whether tuning adapters and/or Tivo function better with more or less signal strength, I honestly don't know. No firsthand experience with either. But somehow I can't imagine why giving LESS signal to anything would be better. What if you didn't have a splitter at all? Would the super-sensitive TA/Tivo arrangement require a "limiter" on the coax, to reduce signal strength being delivered? Seems unlikely.

Was nope. Now yep.

I noticed it was added last week when I did a search for Project Runway...I live in Westminster, Calif on the Bolsa Chica side....

I think my DVR is going bad. I use TWC here in so cal.
More and more there are areas of drop out, first no sound, then the image severely pixilates and then goes black, only to come back

Now If I go to my local store I know they well offer me a replacement DVR but I have hours of recorded shows that my family and I haven't watched yet. Has anyone been able to talk them into giving a replacement but letting the user keep to old DVR for a few weeks?

What city are you in? Here in El Segundo me and a few neighbors were having pixelation and tiling over the weekend on our 8300HDs but it's fine today. I got it on KTLA and KABC morning news, various other HD channels, and it was really bad during the Formula One race on Speed.



They'll probably let you keep the old DVR along with the new one but they'll charge you for it's use. About 6 years ago i was renting two at the same time for a few years, both connected to the same TV.

I'm in Yorba Linda, Northern Orange County

Yes, you can keep the old one, they charge you the rental fee (and maybe the dvr 'service fee' too), but don't assume the dvr will work when not plugged into the cable and registered. I was in the same situation some years ago with a Moto DVR box and when I unplugged it from the cable line, it wouldn't play any of the recorded programs off the DVR drive.

So I would unplugged the cable from your DVR and try to play some of the recordings.

For the past 2 weeks (it seems), I've experienced bad image judder/stutter (image only, audio is fine) on Comedy Central only. No other channel I've watched has it, seems to be Comedy Central only.

At first I figured they'd fix the feed by now (that 'now' being 2 weeks ago!!). It is now extremely annoying

Anyone else experiencing this?

DCX3400, Silverlake area (Eagle Rock office), former Adelphia.

@fleaman - yes, I see it. Static images look fine. But rapid movements "stutter" - nothing horrible, but definitely annoying. I seldom watch CC, so have no idea how long this has been going on. Appears to be systemic, huh? I'm in Los Feliz, btw.

After some prerecorded DVR research (going through Colbert shows), it seems to have started about 1 week ago, not 2 weeks (though it feels like it!).

Still, WAY too long for this to be going on for!

I have noticed it on Comedy Central HD here in Beverly Hills too.

Yeah, I forgot to mention it was the HD channel. I don't watch any std def
(I guess this is a HD only thread anyway)

I have regularly encountered judder/stutter on certain HD shows, but only when using two of the three QAM tuners that I routinely use. The two tuners that give me problems are the one in my TV and one of the two USB tuners I use. It never happens on the other USB tuner I have. The judder/stutter also never happens on the composite output of the cable box, just on the QAM feeds into the two aforementioned tuners.

I have often noticed that the TV program itself will have the judder/stutter, but many/most of the commercials on the program do not have it.

Anybody know what's causing this?

I'm in Culver City, on the TWC Hollywood (Digital) feed.

For the USB tuner which has the problem, the problem is independent of which computer the tuner is plugged into.

Sounds like a different issue than what I have (not that it's an issue that shouldn't be addressed )

I have the TWC moto DVR and I never saw cronic judder until these last 10 days with Comedy Central HD only.

FYI, TWC has (at last) begun analog reclamation. I wonder how long until it comes to the LA area:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1352511

I guess they'll be handing out a lot of those free adapters.

Comedy Central still has Image Judder, going on a good 12+ days now

And since I'm on a rant, I got the A28 firmware update a couple of weeks ago and ever since my DVR (DCX3400) as been WORSE. The 2 biggies are>>
> Skip FW/RW feature: The 15sec FF/RW skip as an image delay now. Before the A28 update the image & sound would skip in sync (hit skip FF once and both image/sound would start together 15sec later). After the A28 update the image is now delayed so that the sound starts first and the image shortly after. This is REALLY annoying as it's harder to do quick multiple skips to find the end of the commercials as I now overshoot much more now.
> Same thing happens with coming out of pause, the image is delayed. Though it is not really a big deal here.
> When accessing DVR recordings sometimes the picture is reduced to a small square in the upper right top of the screen, with the rest of the screen being just black. I have to switch out of that recording (to live tv or another recording), then back to get the image to fill the screen again.

And besides those 2 big annoyances, I haven't noticed any improvement(s) with this new A28 firmware , are there any improvements I should notice/look for? Is it possible to order TWC to give me my old firmware back? I suppose that is highly unlikely.

Actually, A28 is "software". I assume you've still got the 78.44-A28p0-2.0908.r-4 version that the rest of the TWC/LA (and all other TWC areas nationally, from what I've read) has.

As far as I know, there has never been any updated A28 software version ever rolled out to any TWC area across the nation since this initial 78.44 version, which was distributed nationally starting back in February 2010.

The "firmware" is a different number, like 22.65 or 24.07 or something like that. And this firmware HAS been updated periodically over the past year and a half. The initial firmware version rolled with the initial A28 software was 22.37. It was subsequently updated to 22.65 as I recall.

Do you have a newer firmware version than 22.65? What version is it, and when exactly did you get it? And what is your hardware... DCX3400 or DCX3500 or DCX3500-M?

Guys, I've got 24.29 on my 3400 here in Los Feliz (you must have the same, fleaman). I can't remember the last time I checked. Is this new?

Also, fleaman, I'm not seeing the skip ahead issue you are. But CC is still screwed up here.

Yeah, I have 24.29 firmware, A28 software. Do you have the same issues as me?