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CableCard Programming Peculiarities

439 Views 2 Replies 2 Participants Last post by spy_hunter, May 3, 2006

spy_hunter

Discussion Starter · May 2, 2006

Several times a month on my Sony KDLV40XBR1 set with Time Warner Cable, I get "Required Monthly Test" banners across the top of my screen which even invades other input modes, and the thing scrolls for a good 20 minutes if you don't change channels or inputs to try to get rid of it, and I thought this was very odd the first time I was watching a DVD or playing a game and this thing came through... I guess it is the television equivalent of the Emergency Broadcasting Center on the radio, but the funny thing is that they don't show up on the set top boxes I have...

Does everyone experience these with cablecard? Do they come on all inputs on all TVs? I think they really need to get rid of them or at least tone them down...

Another strange thing is pay-per-view programming, I seem to get a great many movies free and even porn for minutes at a time free and think it is pretty cool, but are other people getting this as well? Why would only certain movies come through, and other times the channels are blank, same goes for porn, only 5-10 minutes of a show will display, then go blank and the channel will then be "not authorized"? You'd think it would work all of the time or never... Also of interest is the movies when playing all have a skip about every 10 seconds, so it is hard to watch because you end up missing a word of dialogue every 10 seconds or so...

Time Warner is so unsupportive of cablecards that I fear for their adoption in the mainstream, the worst thing about them is programming information, other than channel name, there is none. My Sony manual states that some companies can put programming information on to them, but it seems that TimeWarner is too lazy to do so, or the type of card I have may not support it? Maybe Sony is putting it in the manuals because 2.0 cards will support it? TimeWarner says it is because they are not 2-way devices and cannot send data back to the station, and that would make sense for the pay-per-view or on-demand services because they need to send and receive signals, but for programming information, this should not apply, because this would be a one way data transmission in that the station sends information along with the video? And it is a sad excuse from such a rich company...

Does anybody get Programming Information? If so, what company?

Thanks for any comments!

SH

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utahsa1nt

· #2 · May 2, 2006

I've never heard of that error message before, and in my experience as a tech with TWC, cable cards are pretty crappy in general. While I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't have any issues with them, I of course, am on the phone taking calls from people who say that every couple of days they lose half their channels and have to unplug their tv and pull out the card for a few minutes and then reconnect everything.

There are apparently a lot of compatibilty issues with certain brands of cable cards and TVs but I haven't noticed a pattern that I could put my finger on.

I really have no advice for you about the PPV issue you're having as I have never encountered that particular problem either.

As far as an IPG (interactive program guide) goes, as the name suggests, they are interactive which does mean that two way communication is definitely necessary. The set-top boxes can only hold a certain amount of programming information and anything after a few days out is requested by the set-top on the fly from the provider. Cable cards aren't really popular where I am so I don't have much experience with versions and revisions and such but I personally have never encountered a card that supports program guide data.

I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful to the specific problem you're having but I hope it lends some insight into the world of cable cards. I'd be happy to try and answer any more questions you have.

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spy_hunter

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 3, 2006

Thanks for the reply...

I had all of my digital channels disappear the other day, and after hitting reset to the card in the TV menu, it re-acquired them all, so you may want to have your customers try that...

I believe set-top boxes are equally as crappy, I also have 2 Scientific Atlanta HD boxes, and they lose channels on occasion and the worst thing is the company resets them at least once a week which makes the power go off on them, and if we don't catch them in time, TiVo and Media Center record only the blackness...

I realize a IPG would be alot to ask of these cards, but it's just sad that this day in technology that at least the name of the show can't be simply transmitted along with the show and be displayed by this device...

SH

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