# Charter Spectrum (LA) no longer supporting Tivo?



## dis737 (Jun 16, 2020)

I had a tech over yesterday to fix the problem of periodically losing my premium channels (Tivo indicates "no tuning adapter" even though its connected and sync'd) and he told me they are having similar issues with other tivos across their system and the problem is that tivo is no longer updating their equipment (firmware/etc.) while charter is and that this problem will continue to happen and you will eventually start losing all your sdv channels and the only solution to keep you service stable is to use their box.

Anyone else heard something similar from their provider?


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Yep. Techs and their management have been spreading pure BS like this for years. I see at least a dozen threads per year on this board alone. Complete BS.


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## dis737 (Jun 16, 2020)

Agreed sounds that way to me too, but the reality is I am having to have a tech come out at least once a month to get my premium channels back as no one on the support line can figure it out and no one can explain to me why this keep happening (signal levels are fine and it's always the same problem, tivo is no longer recognizing that tuning adapter is connected even though tuning adapter is sync'd with a solid light).

I have a call into the tech's supervisor to see if I can get any answers out of him.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Could be any number of things besides Tivo no longer updating their firmware, which is sort of true if you refuse to upgrade to Hydra. Could be a bad USB cable, bad USB port on Tivo or TA, bad power supply on TA, some other hardware failure on Tivo or TA. The sync light only cares about the coax connection, not the USB. But it doesn't sound like Charter's problem to me. They probably don't have a clue anyway.


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## dis737 (Jun 16, 2020)

I think we've addressed most of the issues you suggested there, tried multiple cables, multiple TAs, gone back and forth on the tivo usb ports, power has always been steady on TA.

On a typical tech visit, the process of re-provisioning both the TA and the cable card (even though they claim they were previously provisioned properly) seems to get everything back up which leads me to blame something going wrong on Charter's end. Thx for you input.


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## karlegas (Dec 3, 2013)

dis737 said:


> I think we've addressed most of the issues you suggested there, tried multiple cables, multiple TAs, gone back and forth on the tivo usb ports, power has always been steady on TA.
> 
> On a typical tech visit, the process of re-provisioning both the TA and the cable card (even though they claim they were previously provisioned properly) seems to get everything back up which leads me to blame something going wrong on Charter's end. Thx for you input.


The problem is always on the provision of the cable card on the central system... I will expecting my new Tivo Edge on Friday I will try to provisioning on Saturday by myself hopefully I did not get trouble I was thinking get other cable card in case they cannot provisioning the actual with the new host.

What you think? Is worthy go to the store in case?

Karl


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

dis737 said:


> I think we've addressed most of the issues you suggested there, tried multiple cables, multiple TAs, gone back and forth on the tivo usb ports, power has always been steady on TA.
> 
> On a typical tech visit, the process of re-provisioning both the TA and the cable card (even though they claim they were previously provisioned properly) seems to get everything back up which leads me to blame something going wrong on Charter's end. Thx for you input.


I've just never seen a provisioning issue result in a "not connected" error on Tivo.

Are you missing anything important if you disconnect the TA? That's probably the easiest solution. Or switch to Youtube TV like I did.


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## dis737 (Jun 16, 2020)

Yes, I lose a lot of my premium channels without the tuning adapter.

Not sure how much pressure the cablecos have to continue to support cable cards. They are clearly losing money on me with all the tech visits and customer service calls, and it sounds like I'm not the only one.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

dis737 said:


> Yes, I lose a lot of my premium channels without the tuning adapter.
> 
> Not sure how much pressure the cablecos have to continue to support cable cards. They are clearly losing money on me with all the tech visits and customer service calls, and it sounds like I'm not the only one.


You can get your premiums on apps, unless you're talking about sports.

Cable card support is still the law of the land. If you don't get satisfaction, file an FCC complaint to light a fire under them.


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## karlegas (Dec 3, 2013)

dis737 said:


> Yes, I lose a lot of my premium channels without the tuning adapter.
> 
> Not sure how much pressure the cablecos have to continue to support cable cards. They are clearly losing money on me with all the tech visits and customer service calls, and it sounds like I'm not the only one.


In my case are not only the premium channels are the international channels or any channel in SD format get error V56 if the card is not provisioned with the TA


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## dis737 (Jun 16, 2020)

I'm referring to Digital tiers 1 and 2, which includes stuff like NFL network, ESPN U, FS2, MTV secondary stations, AxsTV, HDNet, Pac12

It also affects all the other HBO channels other than 501


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## Carol F (Dec 8, 2020)

dis737 said:


> I had a tech over yesterday to fix the problem of periodically losing my premium channels (Tivo indicates "no tuning adapter" even though its connected and sync'd) and he told me they are having similar issues with other tivos across their system and the problem is that tivo is no longer updating their equipment (firmware/etc.) while charter is and that this problem will continue to happen and you will eventually start losing all your sdv channels and the only solution to keep you service stable is to use their box.
> 
> Anyone else heard something similar from their provider?


Just had exactly same experience here in Beverly Hills with Spectrum tech. He said they are considering stopping support for TIVO next July. Too many issues with TIVO, digital adapters, etc.


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## JustJay (Jan 21, 2021)

I not only have TiVo myself, but we sell TiVo's as an alternative to local cable's "DVR" system. So we constantly hear "oh we don't support TiVo, you have to use our system", which the reply (for now) is "maybe so but you have to support your cable-card". Granted they don't make money off of cablecards. And the majority of the newer cable techs, have never seen a TiVo much less know how they work. But for now, they are still utilizing them and supporting them, with a little nudge.
Just today, I had a Spectrum tech come out, because they could not get the cablecard authorized. Fortunately, I was able to run him thru the menus and config data, that their "TiVo Support" person needed. And yes, they have people that are trained in that area! Seems that the first two cablecards were not properly "staged" for our area, meaning that they were from a different region of the country and hadn't been reassigned. I was heartened to see that while the tech initially just said "call for a new card", he decided to go and get a 2nd TA and a couple of cablecards! Thank God, the 3rd time was a charm! So, it sounds like your cablecard is having an issue. What the heck...doesn't hurt to ask for a replacement, right?? Good Luck and hope you solve it.


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## Willy92 (Oct 12, 2018)

JustJay said:


> I not only have TiVo myself, but we sell TiVo's as an alternative to local cable's "DVR" system. So we constantly hear "oh we don't support TiVo, you have to use our system", which the reply (for now) is "maybe so but you have to support your cable-card". Granted they don't make money off of cablecards. And the majority of the newer cable techs, have never seen a TiVo much less know how they work. But for now, they are still utilizing them and supporting them, with a little nudge.
> Just today, I had a Spectrum tech come out, because they could not get the cablecard authorized. Fortunately, I was able to run him thru the menus and config data, that their "TiVo Support" person needed. And yes, they have people that are trained in that area! Seems that the first two cablecards were not properly "staged" for our area, meaning that they were from a different region of the country and hadn't been reassigned. I was heartened to see that while the tech initially just said "call for a new card", he decided to go and get a 2nd TA and a couple of cablecards! Thank God, the 3rd time was a charm! So, it sounds like your cablecard is having an issue. What the heck...doesn't hurt to ask for a replacement, right?? Good Luck and hope you solve it.


Sounds right, I had to call 3 times to get someone to reactivate my cable card after I had sent my Tivo Bolt in for a hard drive replacement. The first 2 just told me it was a Tivo problem and couldn't help. The 3rd one had me pull up the specs on screen and had me read them off and he made the adjustments, and away we went, all fixed. I have Spectrum, previously Time Warner.


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## HDTVjunkie (Apr 24, 2008)

Big fan of Tivo for a long time, because of the user interface. Just bought a new Edge to replace my Bolt for the extra 2 tuners. But, very recent changes by Comcast to only provide many channels via IP have made any Tivo unit almost obsolete because the Tivo units are not IP capable. And I assume that it will only get worse as Comcast migrates more of the channels to IP.

So, the cable companies are going to do the bare minimum for Tivo customers because they know that Tivo will be gone pretty soon. Of course, I wish I had figured this out before buying the $400 Edge.

The question is where do we go from here? The Comcast solution is to rent their X1 STB, and separately rent the ability to record content as a feature. Having used the X1 for a couple of weeks while trying to sort out Tivo cablecard pairing issues, It is a step backwards on user interface.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

HDTVjunkie said:


> Big fan of Tivo for a long time, because of the user interface. Just bought a new Edge to replace my Bolt for the extra 2 tuners. But, very recent changes by Comcast to only provide many channels via IP have made any Tivo unit almost obsolete because the Tivo units are not IP capable. And I assume that it will only get worse as Comcast migrates more of the channels to IP.
> 
> So, the cable companies are going to do the bare minimum for Tivo customers because they know that Tivo will be gone pretty soon. Of course, I wish I had figured this out before buying the $400 Edge.
> 
> The question is where do we go from here? The Comcast solution is to rent their X1 STB, and separately rent the ability to record content as a feature. Having used the X1 for a couple of weeks while trying to sort out Tivo cablecard pairing issues, It is a step backwards on user interface.


I suspect that we TiVo users will be okay on Comcast CATV service for at least several more years, with a slow but steady trickle of mostly lesser channels to IP only. Until the day when Comcast switches even the mainstream HD channels to IP or pulls the plug entirely on QAM, you can use the Xfinity Stream app on a Roku device to receive those IP-only channels. And if your service plan includes the basic 20 hours of storage, you can even "record" some content via the app.

In short, I think you will easily amortize your $400 Edge investment versus monthly rental of a comparable Comcast DVR. And in a worst case scenario, you can supplement your Edge with a Comcast Xi6 4K STB for $7.50 p.m.


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## HDTVjunkie (Apr 24, 2008)

chiguy50 said:


> I suspect that we TiVo users will be okay on Comcast CATV service for at least several more years, with a slow but steady trickle of mostly lesser channels to IP only. Until the day when Comcast switches even the mainstream HD channels to IP or pulls the plug entirely on QAM, you can use the Xfinity Stream app on a Roku device to receive those IP-only channels. And if your service plan includes the basic 20 hours of storage, you can even "record" some content via the app.
> 
> In short, I think you will easily amortize your $400 Edge investment versus monthly rental of a comparable Comcast DVR. And in a worst case scenario, you can supplement your Edge with a Comcast Xi6 4K STB for $7.50 p.m.


Thanks. I have found multiple solutions for storing / playback of IP content. But I don't find much detail on the playback aspects. IMHO, Tivo aced the playback experience with the 30 sec / 15 min jump forward button and the 10 second rewind button. The X1 STB was impossible to rewind to where I wanted it, and pretty much the same for the jump forward. Any recommendations on any device that offers a Tivo-like jump forward feature?


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

HDTVjunkie said:


> Thanks. I have found multiple solutions for storing / playback of IP content. But I don't find much detail on the playback aspects. IMHO, Tivo aced the playback experience with the 30 sec / 15 min jump forward button and the 10 second rewind button. The X1 STB was impossible to rewind to where I wanted it, and pretty much the same for the jump forward. Any recommendations on any device that offers a Tivo-like jump forward feature?


I think TiVo is the best (as would most users on this forum). But you may not have given the X1 a fair shake. I myself have only had very limited hands-on experience with an XG1v4 DVR, but I seem to recall, among other features, that you can give it voice commands through the remote to fast-forward or rewind a specific time interval (e.g., "go forward 10 minutes" or "go back 30 seconds").


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## pedicle (Feb 10, 2009)

Anyone ever experience BOTH cable cards going out simultaneously? Worked fine for years in two tivos...now zero signal. Spectrum has been out three times...keep putting new cards in....they admit they dont know cable cards...but still get the channnel not autorized waring for every channel V58 I think


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

pedicle said:


> Anyone ever experience BOTH cable cards going out simultaneously? Worked fine for years in two tivos...now zero signal. Spectrum has been out three times...keep putting new cards in....they admit they dont know cable cards...but still get the channnel not autorized waring for every channel V58 I think


Undoubtedly a head end issue. Cable cards very, very rarely have an issue where one gets no channels. To have both of them have this failure is obvious a head end issue. It could also be a headend issue with tuning adapters. It used to be, for me anyway, that you could still get non SDV channels when the tuning adapters stopped working. But I notice now that I often can't get any channels while the TA is out or in the process of rebooting. Even then I often have to reboot the TiVo to restore functionality.


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## JustJay (Jan 21, 2021)

pedicle said:


> Anyone ever experience BOTH cable cards going out simultaneously? Worked fine for years in two tivos...now zero signal. Spectrum has been out three times...keep putting new cards in....they admit they dont know cable cards...but still get the channnel not autorized waring for every channel V58 I think


I experienced this issue, when setting up my new account, here in San Antonio. The batch of cable cards the Spectrum Warehouse had, were from "another region" and had to be added to the local region in their system. The tech went thru 3 of them, before they realized the problem. Once the had them added to their inventory in their database, the card worked. Took two trips and a few calls to their upper level support, but finally got it!


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## pedicle (Feb 10, 2009)

Regional cards can be the problem, but in my case...both cards went dead at same time. Why? As it turns out and after considerable time from Spectrum field and headend engineers, the problem has been found to be the 75mhz frequency is dissapearing all over N Texas with Tivo/Cisco card users. When that happens the older legacy Cisco cable cards...go toes up. Not a card or Tivo problem (other than no pic) but Spectrum is trying to find out why the 75mhz frequency is MIA in their system.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

pedicle said:


> Regional cards can be the problem, but in my case...both cards went dead at same time. Why? As it turns out and after considerable time from Spectrum field and headend engineers, the problem has been found to be the 75mhz frequency is dissapearing all over N Texas with Tivo/Cisco card users. When that happens the older legacy Cisco cable cards...go toes up. Not a card or Tivo problem (other than no pic) but Spectrum is trying to find out why the 75mhz frequency is MIA in their system.


My system (small private - SECV.COM) was at 75MHz, then about three years the OOB return channel changed to 110.25MHz. It may be related to a massive upgrade of my local headend. All I needed to do was a restart.


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## TvoUser111 (Jun 8, 2021)

Carol F said:


> Just had exactly same experience here in Beverly Hills with Spectrum tech. He said they are considering stopping support for TIVO next July. Too many issues with TIVO, digital adapters, etc.


And here we are in June 2021. The error i get is "Your Tuning Adapter does not recognize the security certificates on the TiVo box. ... contact your cable provider and request a firmware upgrade." The Spectrum tech out today to solve the issue saw this message and since the TA would not lock, told me to swap out for a new TA. The Spectrum store claims they have no more TAs anywhere in the store or any store. "Maybe" I can call tech support and ask them to provide an update. Now looking into all streaming. Probably another forum.


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## ncbill (Sep 1, 2007)

I wish they'd just go ahead and announce an end date for support of retail CC/TAs...maybe end of 2022?

Then I could convince DW that we should go ahead and drop cable for OTA.


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## H2ZX (May 19, 2021)

dis737 said:


> Agreed sounds that way to me too, but the reality is I am having to have a tech come out at least once a month to get my premium channels back as no one on the support line can figure it out and no one can explain to me why this keep happening (signal levels are fine and it's always the same problem, tivo is no longer recognizing that tuning adapter is connected even though tuning adapter is sync'd with a solid light).
> 
> I have a call into the tech's supervisor to see if I can get any answers out of him.


 If your using HDMI next time it does it use something else, see if that works.


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## Tipperton (May 23, 2017)

I am a blind TiVo Bolt user and I also use Spectrum

As soon as I told them I was blind, they put me in touch with a field supervisor who told me that I should call him if I needed help with my services instead of calling the standard tech support line, he said that that would insure that I get tech support from people who have been trained to support Spectrum's new accessibility initiative.

And, *YES* they do support TiVo with a cable card and a tuning adapter.

Other than a flakey cable modem, which was quickly replaced, I've had very little trouble with my Spectrum/TiVo/Bose setup

Of course, your mileage may vary... (but I hope not!)


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## Tipperton (May 23, 2017)

This is a test, just ignore this message.


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## Tipperton (May 23, 2017)

This is test number 2, I can't seem to be able to create a new thread, so I'm trying to figure out why. Sorry for the messages, please just ignore them.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Tipperton said:


> This is test number 2, I can't seem to be able to create a new thread, so I'm trying to figure out why. Sorry for the messages, please just ignore them.


try here: Post Testing Area


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