Big8ter
@comcast.net
| reply to gchris2203
Re: Is my "free" cable box really free?
I am positive that out of the 200 ish in house techs working out of my office and the 25ish network techs. You well not find one that has never had a problem with a cable card install or trouble call relating to the firmware of the tv or tivo or the card simply not liking that device for some odd reason. There is an unwritten but commonly believed rule that whenever you have a cable card install you bring about 6 cards with you for every 1 cable card slot in a customer device. I can count on one finger the number of installs and trouble calls the first card I tried on any brand of TV worked right away. Most of the times the cards work right away with a TIVO, we do not seem to see many MOXI dvrs out my way.
The technology for whatever reason be it cable company driven or customer device driven is very buggy and again only TIVO seems to get it right. There is a big reason manufacturers do not make TV's for cards, and no longer support the TV's they did make. Now I am no rocket scientist but if only one company seems to get the problem solved correctly then that is the company I would buy my cable card device from, if I did not want to pay cable box rental fees or whatever. |
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Curlee
join:2009-07-17
Issaquah, WA | Do you have a TIVO at the office, so you can do CableCARD pre-screens before you hit the field? |
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riblet
join:2006-03-08
Naples, FL
2 edits | reply to bicker
said by bicker  :As per federal regulations, digital "cable-ready" is provided for. However, consumers have been generally unwilling to do their part, refusing (when originally offered in 2005) to spend the extra money for the compatible equipment. I bought a 42" HDTV (and a TiVo) with CableCARD slots in 2006 and Comcast refused to provide them to me. The cable industry has done everything it can to suppress this technology. |
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Curlee
join:2009-07-17
Issaquah, WA
 ·Comcast Formerly ..
| reply to bicker
said by bicker : There are bad CableCARDs, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that most CableCARDs that have gone bad before first deployment were simply mishandled before installation. In my experience, the number one killer of electronics is electrostatic discharge. PCMCIA cards appear to be physically well protected against ESD. If this were not the case, you'd expect to see more failures in low humidity seasons or parts of the country.
said by bicker :We customers have dug our own hole, and now we have to live with the consequences, and take responsibility for our own collective tendencies, even if we, individually, don't behave that way. By analogy then, I'm collectively partially responsible for what passes as contemporary music today? (laugh) |
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Curlee
join:2009-07-17
Issaquah, WA
·Comcast Formerly ..
| reply to gchris2203
said by gchris2203 :When they are directly inserted into TV's commonly they will lose channels. By "directly inserted", do you mean hot-plugged?
This is designed not to do any electrical damage. But it's difficult, if not impossible, to test firmware for every timing possibility. You might have better luck powering down the TV first. |
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Curlee
join:2009-07-17
Issaquah, WA
·Comcast Formerly ..
| reply to bicker
said by bicker :Robustness costs money. My (business) customers should be willing to pay extra for that extra level of reliability, but mass-market consumers typically are not. Mass-market consumers are almost all maniacally focused on getting the lowest possible price that they can ... I see this rush for cheapness in the hiring of engineers, to which I standardly reply:
"If you had to have brain surgery, would you hire 20 cheap doctors with one year experience, or one expensive doctor with 20 years experience?"
Nowhere is this effect more immediate than in English soccer. An expensive, talented striker is traded, and the team plummets in the standings. |
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bicker
join:2007-05-10
Burlington, MA
4 edits | reply to riblet
What I wrote is absolutely the facts.
said by riblet :I bought a 42" HDTV (and a TiVo) with CableCARD slots in 2006 and Comcast refused to provide them to me. I don't believe you. I have been following the CableCARD issue very closely since the TiVo S3 came out, and Comcast never refused to provide them in the categorical manner your comment implies. I believe you're omitting key facts that would tend to decimate the argument you're trying to make. |
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bicker
join:2007-05-10
Burlington, MA
| reply to Curlee
said by Curlee :By analogy then, I'm collectively partially responsible for what passes as contemporary music today? (laugh) Hehe... indeed. We let it happen. However, beyond that, the point is not to take individual responsibility, but rather to place responsibility where it belongs, i.e., on all of us collectively. That's why I underlined what I underlined in the message you replied to. |
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riblet
join:2006-03-08
Naples, FL
1 edit | reply to bicker
said by bicker :I don't believe you. I have been following the CableCARD issue very closely since the TiVo S3 came out, and Comcast never refused to provide them in the categorical manner your comment implies. I believe you're omitting key facts that would tend to decimate the argument you're trying to make. Good thing the truth is not contingent on what you believe, because in February, April, August and December 2006 and March and July 2007 I tried to get Cable CARDS for both the TV and TiVo and Comcast refused to provide them saying that the were not available. Maybe you should listen to what people's first-hand experience is telling you.
I eventually solved the problem by kicking Comcast to the curb. If I am going to need a set-top box it'll be for a superior product, which is satellite TV. |
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caddyroger
Premium
join:2001-06-11
clubs: 
·Comcast
| That might been your Comcast office. I bought my TiVo s3 the same month that they came out. I drove to my Comcast office and picked up 3 cable cards 2 for the TiVo S3 and 1 for my tv. Less then 1 hour after I got home my TiVo and tv was working with the cable cards. To say Comcast does not provide Cable cards is wrong. It was just your office that said that. If you contacted the corporate office they may have got the cards for you
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Caddy |
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The Q
join:2008-06-26
Collegeville, PA
2 edits | reply to riblet
Somebody has a few cablecards, roughly half a million deployed in stand-alone retail devices:
»www.lightreading.com/document.as···d=178653
According to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) data filed in late June 2009, the top 10 "incumbent" U.S. cable MSOs had deployed more than 14.08 million operator-supplied set-tops with CableCARDs since the FCC ban took effect two years ago. By comparison, those same MSOs have deployed just over 437,800 CableCARD modules for use in retail devices. |
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bicker
join:2007-05-10
Burlington, MA
1 edit | reply to riblet
said by riblet :Maybe you should listen to what people's first-hand experience is telling you. I listened, and I don't believe you. I think you are making things up, and/or hiding relevant facts. I say this because I was very much attuned to the issue at the time, and I would have heard if the company was overtly violating the law as you assert. Indeed, if you were telling the truth, then you would likely have pursued the issue with your Members of Congress, and gotten action to resolve your concerns, since provision of CableCARDs was indeed the law. Again, I think you're making things up, and/or hiding relevant facts. |
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bicker
join:2007-05-10
Burlington, MA
1 edit | reply to caddyroger
said by caddyroger :That might been your Comcast office. I bought my TiVo s3 the same month that they came out. I drove to my Comcast office and picked up 3 cable cards 2 for the TiVo S3 and 1 for my tv. Less then 1 hour after I got home my TiVo and tv was working with the cable cards. To say Comcast does not provide Cable cards is wrong. It was just your office that said that. If you contacted the corporate office they may have got the cards for you Yes, I do suspect that that's the sort of deception that the previous poster was engaging in, perhaps going to the local office and insisting on being given CableCARDs instead of ordering them through the published mechanisms and having them installed by technicians like the rest of us. I suspect part of the what the previous poster left out was his assumption that he's better than everyone else and therefore deserved to be treated in a manner different from the rest of us, and that he felt there should have been different procedures to satisfy his needs than that provided to serve the needs of all of us.
This is my biggest concern about online forums -- the fact that people can complain without there being a legitimate and fair opportunity for those being complained against to tell their side of the story -- without there being any chance of us readers getting the whole truth. |
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riblet
join:2006-03-08
Naples, FL
2 edits | reply to bicker
said by bicker :I listened, and I don't believe you. I think you are making things up, and/or hiding relevant facts. I say this because I was very much attuned to the issue at the time, and I would have heard if the company was overtly violating the law as you assert. Indeed, if you were telling the truth, then you would likely have pursued the issue with your Members of Congress, and gotten action to resolve your concerns, since provision of CableCARDs was indeed the law. Again, I think you're making things up, and/or hiding relevant facts. .
Read: THEY WOULD NOT PROVIDE THEM. The law did not matter. Yeah I could have sued but that would kind of defeat the purpose, eh?
No congress person is going to force Comcast to do anything. I gave them the opportunity to make it right and when they didn't I took my business elsewhere. I voted with my money. What about that is so hard for you to understand? |
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caddyroger
Premium
join:2001-06-11
clubs:
·Comcast
| reply to riblet
Re: Is my "free" cable box really free?
Got news for you. You did not hurt Comcast. You think losing 1 sub going to hurt. Now if you let the corp office know what that local office was doing you might have got some thing done about. Did you ask them to install the cards or did you insist that they give you the cards?
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Caddy |
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