TiVo Series 3 - "Official" Thread - Page 165

Having brought up the point was definitely worth it. If you can get TiVo to recognize, and potentially diagnose and correct the problem, it will have been a worthy pursuit. However, TiVo's got a LOT of irons in the fire right now, and this particular problem likely doesn't rate very high on their To Do List (pun semi-intended).

I'd actually argue that the Series3 may not be more "mature" than the TiVo HD, and going to that platform may not be your best move. TiVo made some chipset changes between the S3 and THD, for various reasons (financial, engineering, or otherwise). However, the TivoHD is most definitely TiVo's preferred platform going forward. I'd say it's a fairly simple line of reasoning that the S3 has been end-of-lifed to a certain extent, and that the TiVoHD will receive the lion's share of the engineering develop/debug cycles that TiVo allocates.



I don't doubt there is a problem. However, until TiVo decides to take action on this item, a seemingly endless stream of reporting on the issue tends to feel like tilting at windmills.

TWC and Cox have been fined for implementing SDV in Hawaii and Virginia (see this).

Whoops!

You get the sense that the FCC was going to do this all along but was waiting for an official complaint from a subscriber.

The moving of the Latino tier by Cox would seem to cause a backlash by itself, in fact, it may have been what prompted the FCC to act.

The FCC has a healthy history of assessing illegitimate fines (CBS Superbowl 2004).

We'll see. TWC Oceanic subs have been complaining to the FCC about this for nearly two years, but the FCC always acts at a fairly glacial pace.

We'll see what happens on appeal. I personally have no doubt that moving existing linear channels to SDV violates the Plug-and-Play regulations as written. I just thought that the FCC was going to let it go, since the cable provider basically had little choice if they wanted to remain competitive with other subscription television sources like DirecTV. I get the impression that it's not so much that they did what they did but that they didn't ask permission to do it.

Well, the above last 2 posts seem to be diametrically opposing, should be interesting to see how it turns out.

bicker1 has a bit of a reputation of being the defender of cable companies. I don't think he will deny that reputation, however he will tell you that his responses are not bios. And to be fair he basis them on logic and fact.

However comparing the Super Bowl to cable IMHO is like apples and oranges. Bicker, correct me if I'm wrong, and I know you will, but doesn't the FCC report to someone in the very conservative Bush administration?

And I do agree that the FCC does overstep it's bounds. Listen to a regular radio station on FM these days. Back in the 70's it was just find for Pink Floyd to sing "Money" and say "don't give me that good good bull sh#t." But not anymore, everyone is afraid.

That fine was a slap on the wrist, done more for show then anything else IMHO.

The fine is nothing--it's the ordered rebate of many months worth of subscription fees to tens of thousands of subs that's gonna hurt.

My statement that they're in violation of the plug-and-play regs, is only vis-a-vis their moving existing services to SDV. I don't think that they can be attacked for presenting new services as SDV. TWC Oceanic implemented SDV and moved all of their existing HD services to it, making CableCARDs useless for watching HDTV on cable. What Cox Fairfax did doesn't seem that offensive, in comparison (unless, of course, you're a CableCARD-using Latino programming fan ).

To me, that would seem to be a bit in the discrimination arena, were other international language based channels moved to SDV as well?

Also to keep in mind, that was from Multichannel News which doesn't have the best reputation for getting the facts straight.

I have no problem with bicker1's views and statements, in fact, he usually makes perfect sense, it's just that many folks let their emotional/financial situations cloud the hard facts sometimes and he will point that out.

I was just commenting that one says it's correct, and another says it's incorrect, not choosing "sides" at all.

I didn't have a problem with your comment either. I just quoted it because I know bicker1 really needs me to defend him.

And if you read my comment it was about as good as a politician could do. I took his side, then went against him, then told him he may be right, then I went into a whole different subject.

I should run for office!

I don't know. Maybe the Latino programming was all the digital foreign language stuff. Here, TWC moved all of the foreign language stuff to SDV, Latino, Filipino, Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese.

bicker openly admits to a pro-business, anti-government-regulation stance and I respect that .

The full "Notice of Apparent Liability For Forfeiture and Order" concerning TWC Oceanic can be seen here. It's an interesting read. The document for Cox Fairfax can be found here.

It is a good read... Perhaps I missed it, but I didnt see any order for TWC to move the SDV stuff back to linear.... so the victory seems hollow.

No--they didn't make any such order, which would have been nice to see. That might be in recognition of the inevitability of SDV. They ordered them to refund the difference between the cost of CableCARDs and STB lease to former CableCARD users who switched to leased STBs and to refund some subscription fees to people who elected to continue to use CableCARDs, based on the significant reduction in service.

You could say that comparing anything to anything else is like apples and oranges. Nothing is the same, but everything is the same. The deal is that both of these fines are anti-business in nature.


No. Rather, the Bush administration appointed three of the five commissioners, one of which, the Chairman, is a rabid anti-cable person. While most of his actions are conservative in nature, when it comes to cable, he is a distinct disappointment to the party he is affiliated with.

I disagree. The Super Bowl had to do with censorship and the FCC "flexing their muscle" by attempting to scare broadcasters into making sure that they understood who was the boss of the airwaves. The cable fines have to do with a company who the FCC felt was taking away the rights of thousands of people to access certain content that they pay for.

Anti-business? I would say that to some extent you are correct but I feel it was more of a power play.


See, I told you he would correct me if I was wrong.

Which could reduce down to, "The Super Bowl was an FCC decision [you] didn't necessarily agree with and the cable fines was an FCC decision [you] agree with."

There is a legitimate interpretation, in both cases, that the FCC overstepped its authority.

Illegitimate?? That sounds like a reckless aspersion, and a decision that you obviously don't like, even though it was based on experience, expertise, professionalism, and fiduciary responsibility.

The CBS Superbowl fine was overturned. There is nothing reckless about my comment in that regard. Unlike the people to whom my signature refers, I do not make such comments until AFTER the courts determine that which I wrote.

Actually, the Commission's order is pro-competition, which is good for consumers and businesses wishing to compete in a given market place. That it is contrary to the interests of a regulated company, which enjoys a semi-monopoly, certainly does not make it "anti-business." The bottom line is that TWC by the introduction of SDV eliminated the ability of CableCARD users to tune many stations, which they had previously been able to receive. The telephone companies made the same argument years ago when the Commission forced them to allow the use of third-party phones on their networks. I think few would argue that that hasn't worked out very well in the form of better products and lower prices.

Clearly, TWC and other cable companies would ultimately have been able to implement SDV without running afoul of the FCC's Rules but by doing it at a time when the result was to deprive CableCARD users of their ability to receive many channels that they formerly did get TWC broke the Rules. Thus, the Commission's decision to require TWC to pay CableCard users the value of the services they are losing because of SDV is perfectly sensible, to me at least.

Actually, all the MSOs needed to do is delay deployment of HD channels until after SDV was available. The FCC only cited the companies for moving existing linear channels onto SDV; they made it pretty clear that new channels can go onto SDV no problem. So all the MSOs would have had to do is keep the SD channels available on linear channels, and add the HD channels only after SDV was deployed; they'd have been okay.

I wonder if they can remove HD channels for a period of three months, and then add them back on SDV, to avoid this sanction going forward. Removing the service from all customers is surely allowed, and then they can add it back as a new service later.

I'm looking for a little advice here, guys.

The other day I was checking the amount of space available on m TiVo HD. I couldn't find it on any of the local interent addresses that it is usually on. I went upstairs and saw that there was no connection, message said a plug had been pulled out.

I checked the connection and it was in there just fine. I moved it to the upper USB connector and connected right away.

So I have a bad USB connector. Now here's the problem: I have a 3 year warranty available through Circuit City. All I want them to do is replace the connector, but knowing how these things work out they may want to hook it up to see if it works. They can't do that because I have the eSATA (unless I bring that in as well, but I didn't get that from them.)

So I think the best way to do this is just replace it myself. I will need it for the digitital converter.

Can someone tell me what I need to get into the box, and if you need to solder or can you just plug the USB in? Can you use electric tape?

Another possibility? Is there such a thing as a USB splitter?

Or should I ask Circuit City to come out to the house since I'm not very good with handling electrical equipment? I know they would probably charge 75.00.

I would advise against cracking the case and mucking around with the unit. That course of action is extremely likely to only make things worse.

You could try a USB hub and see if that works. I can't see why it wouldn't work. That way you could attach multiple USB devices to your single, functional USB port.

I agree. Adding only new channels as SDV would probably have been all right but TMC jumped the gun by moving existing channels to SDV before CableCARD users were capable of receiving SDV channels. That timing gave rise to the inference that TMC did so in order to further the competitive disadvantage manufacturers of CableCARD devices already face vis a vis cable company owned boxes. The Commission clearly was not pleased.

Where do I get a USB hub and how do I plug that in. Is that like a splitter?

Here's a link to Amazon, where I did a search on USB Hub

Amazon USB search

Any simple one should do

Found a simple one at Circuit City. Already ordered for pick up.

Even though I don't need it yet.

It doesn't make much sense to me but just on a hunch I blew inside the USB that wasn't working and plugged it in. I wiggled it a bit which I tried earlier and it started flickering.

Apparently it needed a blow job. (I couldn't resist)

But wouldn't you thing that the one that wasn't connected might have more dust in it? Well, whatever it's working.