# Series 3 - Time Warner NYC cable card - recurring temporary loss of channels



## threephi (Jan 16, 2002)

I have a series 3 which is just over two years old, and subscribe to Time Warner in NYC.

Starting about six months ago, and about once every six to eight weeks since then, my cable cards will suddenly lose the ability to tune anything other than the basic channels. On each occasion, I call Time Warner and they run their remote diagnostics which always fail to restore channels. Then we schedule a tech visit. This has happened four times now, and in each and every occurrence, the problem has disappeared by the next morning so by the time the tech arrives, everything looks ok. Twice I have asked them to replace the cable cards anyway as a precaution but the issue keeps happening. So it seems safe to say this is not a problem with the cards. The tech on the phone tonight had no explanation as to why this issue keeps occurring.

But as I said this has happened four times now and it's getting frustrating. I am starting to suspect the problem may lie with the tivo unit itself. 

I'm not talking about SDV or losing digital channels. When the channels go, I only get basic channels--the regular broadcast networks and NY1 only. I still have my cable box hooked up on an alternate input to my TV and it never loses channels while this is going on.

This time there is one new wrinkle in that the loss of channels is only occurring on one of the cards. The other three times this has happened, both cards lost channels simultaneously.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

What is going on?


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## TolloNodre (Nov 3, 2007)

Have you tried unplugging the TiVo? Sometimes the signal on the cable cards seems to 'float' and they need to have the power pulled to reset them.


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## threephi (Jan 16, 2002)

Yes I suppose I should have stated that I have tried all the basic troubleshooting measures to no avail. Resetting or cycling the power doesn't change anything.


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## galen (Apr 23, 2008)

I see something similar but worse. I noticed this during recording. If the dvr records during this condition I get froozen picture with audio. This only happened about three times. TWC dispatched and replaced the cards(which they did not want to do). It also only happens on one tuner. Reseting the dvr has cleared this issue but how can you do that when you don't know it is happening. Tivo recommended the card swap but they were probably just blaming twc. I have not experienced this in a few months.

I don't think I am out of the woods yet.



threephi said:


> I have a series 3 which is just over two years old, and subscribe to Time Warner in NYC.
> 
> Starting about six months ago, and about once every six to eight weeks since then, my cable cards will suddenly lose the ability to tune anything other than the basic channels. On each occasion, I call Time Warner and they run their remote diagnostics which always fail to restore channels. Then we schedule a tech visit. This has happened four times now, and in each and every occurrence, the problem has disappeared by the next morning so by the time the tech arrives, everything looks ok. Twice I have asked them to replace the cable cards anyway as a precaution but the issue keeps happening. So it seems safe to say this is not a problem with the cards. The tech on the phone tonight had no explanation as to why this issue keeps occurring.
> 
> ...


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## marano (Dec 30, 2002)

I believe I'm having the same problem, I posted to the main Time Warner thread thinking that they may have deployed SDV in NYC/NJ but yesterday after a restart of Tivo and a call to Time Warner to send the box a signal I have all my channels again. The same issue also happened about two weeks ago but it seemed to rectify itself without my intervention (although a few programs did not record because of it). Also twice now I have lost all my channels except basic standard definition and one or two Hi-Def channels, I believe the cable cards said "bad card state" at the time, I did all the recommended troubleshooting on the Tivo side including calling Tivo who blamed the problem on Time Warner, I also had Time Warner send me a signal which still did not resolve the problem so I scheduled a tech to come out but the next day everything was working without a problem. All of these issues seem to have started shortly after Time Warner released a slew of HD channels.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

It was happening to me starting last December TWC Southern Manhattan. 

I did have the cable lines, cable cards and the splitter replaced and that seemed to do the trick for the missing channels, but a new issue arose in that all my HD channels are pixelating so bad I can't watch or record them.

And of course 
- Tivo blames the cable cards and TWC blames the Tivo.

I came up with an expensive solution by getting a TWC HD DVR to record HD programming and use the TiVo to record everything else.


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## chefelf (May 4, 2004)

I'm experiencing this same issue. I only seem to get channels 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 13. Everything else is blacked out.

TW can only send someone during the day during the week (I guess this isn't a problem if you don't have a job) so I can't get an appointment until February 21st for them to come look at this.

Anyone have any luck fixing this on their own? I also have tried everything: rebooting, unplugging, etc.


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## jeremyz (Apr 12, 2006)

chefelf said:


> I'm experiencing this same issue. I only seem to get channels 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 13. Everything else is blacked out.
> 
> TW can only send someone during the day during the week (I guess this isn't a problem if you don't have a job) so I can't get an appointment until February 21st for them to come look at this.
> 
> Anyone have any luck fixing this on their own? I also have tried everything: rebooting, unplugging, etc.


I think we're having the same problem. I'm blacked out on everything but the SD and HD versions of the OTA channels, plus I get a couple of shopping channels and SD A&E, for some reason. I also had the problem late last year with the huge blocks of channels going dark (although I did get on-screen error messages at that time, which was resolved by replacing the cards. I've got a "foreman call" tomorrow, so will update after the visit.

I normally think the problem's with TWC, but I have a bad feeling that this is some strange software issue or a part going bad inside the Tivo. I wish there was some way to take the box somewhere to figure out if it's working.


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## jeremyz (Apr 12, 2006)

Okay - this is definitely a TWCNYC issue. It was just fixed by an *awesome* TWCNYC team that straightened out something in the HQ computers, and my service is now fine. Cards were not replaced, although they were popped out and back in.

Apparently the problem is pretty widespread and pretty consistent. They said that they're looking into the cause, and I believe it.


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## marano (Dec 30, 2002)

jeremyz said:


> Okay - this is definitely a TWCNYC issue. It was just fixed by an *awesome* TWCNYC team that straightened out something in the HQ computers, and my service is now fine. Cards were not replaced, although they were popped out and back in.
> 
> Apparently the problem is pretty widespread and pretty consistent. They said that they're looking into the cause, and I believe it.


I have the same problem again today, do you have any more details on how it was resolved, maybe a case number so others can reference it.


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## jeremyz (Apr 12, 2006)

marano said:


> I have the same problem again today, do you have any more details on how it was resolved, maybe a case number so others can reference it.


They never actually told me _exactly_ what they did, although - like I said - they didn't replace the cards. They said that they "re-entered the codes" back at HQ, which I think means that they re-authorized the cards. For whatever reason, huge swaths of cards de-authorized themselves last week, and I guess it's not obvious to customer service when they look at the status from wherever they sit.

The foreman who was at my house said that he was going to task IT from TWCNYNJ on why it happened. Apparently the issue is pretty common knowledge over there at this point, so hopefully it won't take them that long to diagnose when they show up at your place.


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## chefelf (May 4, 2004)

TWNYC just left my place a couple of hours ago. They fixed it pretty quickly. They also didn't say what they did but I'm back up and running.

Thanks to jeremyz for his help too! I was able to use Live Chat (way better than phone support, BTW) and they booked me an agent yesterday to come out today.


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## threephi (Jan 16, 2002)

I finally had my tech visit today (the delay was due to my schedule, not theirs) and, like jeremyz and chefelf are reporting, it was fixed pretty much immediately by the tech calling the central office and having them re-authorize my cable cards. Since my original post, both cards had lost channels and normal service hadn't resumed on its own as it did the previous times this happened.

I asked the tech what was going on, given that this was the fourth time this had happened in a year, and he said they didn't know what was causing it but they (TW) have seen this happening a lot with tivos in the last week. The tech also said that the service rep you get on the phone as a consumer is *not* able to perform the same fix. Oh joy.


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## blicken (Nov 25, 2001)

I just had both of my cards here in Brooklyn go out on my S3 -- they seemed to lose authorization on Wednesday sometime, as they were dead that evening. I've got a tech coming out on Monday, but I'd love to be able to find some number or person to reach that could just go ahead and do the reauthorization. This is quite frustrating.


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## marano (Dec 30, 2002)

Had the problem again today, it seems to happen almost bi-weekly. The channels didn't return immediately when a signal was sent so I'll wait till tomorrow to see if they return otherwise it looks like my only option is having a tech sent out which is a real hassle. Does anyone who has experienced this problem have some kind of case number to reference or a phone number to call to avoid having a tech sent out?


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## jpines (Mar 2, 2009)

I've also had the problem with loss of some, but not all, channels. The TW service guy who came to fix told me to do the following:
1. Push Card Eject on TiVo to eject cablecard, BUT DON'T REMOVE CARD.
2. Unplug TiVo - wait 10 minutes
3. Plug card in
4. Power up TiVo.

Seemed to work, but he may have also called into HQ to re-authorize card (I have a single multi-card, so only need one for two tuners)

... But now I've got another problem that's even more frustrating: I've turned on the TV only to find a dark screen with TiVo completely dead. Can't get to TiVo home screen, can't get to live TV -- nothing! Unplugging the TiVo brings everything back ... but, meantime, I'm missing shows I thought I was recording bec. TiVo didn't have a signal when the shows aired. Help!?


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## pgreene8 (Dec 31, 2005)

jpines said:


> I've also had the problem with loss of some, but not all, channels. The TW service guy who came to fix told me to do the following:
> 1. Push Card Eject on TiVo to eject cablecard, BUT DON'T REMOVE CARD.
> 2. Unplug TiVo - wait 10 minutes
> 3. Plug card in
> ...


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## jccfin (Aug 28, 2008)

TWCNYC is in a massive reprogram of their channels due to the digital transition. They just recently changed all the HD broadcast channels to their correct channel line-up. For example, CBS use to be on 1-2, and now it's on 2-1 just like the OTA.

I would expect there to be more problems ahead as they get through this transition. I'm glad I'm not paying full price for their service!


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## pgreene8 (Dec 31, 2005)

jccfin said:


> TWCNYC is in a massive reprogram of their channels due to the digital transition. They just recently changed all the HD broadcast channels to their correct channel line-up. For example, CBS use to be on 1-2, and now it's on 2-1 just like the OTA.
> 
> I would expect there to be more problems ahead as they get through this transition. I'm glad I'm not paying full price for their service!


This idea had occurred to me, as well. But it has been going on since the beginning of February and manifests itself in such a variety of terrible symptoms (green screen, no signal, etc). Each call to Customer Support takes me to a deeper circle of TWCNYC purgatory.

Any idea abut how much longer this transition is expected to last? Hopefully not until June!


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## JasonReiser (Dec 21, 2007)

I'm in Manhattan and have Time Warner cable, and both of my TivoHD units stopped working correctly last night (3/7/2009). Both units have a single M-card (Scientific Atlanta) and they still receive the most basic channels (2, 4, 7) but not anything that's encrypted including all the High-Def channels, premiums, and the standard SD cable channels like A&E, Comedy Central, etc.

I spoke with Time Warner and they insisted their is no trouble on their end. I spoke with Tivo and the rep indicated that I was the second caller from NYC that he spoke with yesterday reporting the same trouble.

I tried rebooting, and just attempted the reboot with cablecard removal as described in this thread, but still no luck.

Any other ideas? Are other TWCNYC users having the same issue this weekend? Time Warner scheduled an appointment for a tech to come out in a couple days but that's seems like a waste of time since they likelihood of a problem at this end seems pretty remote.

Thanks,
Jason


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## pgreene8 (Dec 31, 2005)

I think it is pretty certain it is TWC in Manhattan. This afternoon I tried to set up the TWC set top box to use while the TiVo with card is down, and got all channels with video but no audio. 
When I called TWC support there was a recording that service between 9th St & 79th St, river to river, is disrupted. The support guy tried to fix the box's problem of no audio, but things just went from bad to worse, and the STB gave the message that the card in it had to be authorized. I give up. Plugged TiVo back in and will watch Now Playing content until TWC gets its act together.


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## JasonReiser (Dec 21, 2007)

Interesting. I also have a HD cable box but it is working fine - both audio and video on all channels.

I spoke with TWC again a few minutes ago, and the rep said that the shift manager informed them of this problem, and that at the moment they're just making appointments. Maybe when the right techs come into the office on Monday they'll realize what's up and resolve the issue. In the mean time, it sounds like we're just out of luck.


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## pgreene8 (Dec 31, 2005)

My channels just came back, including Hi Def; who knows how long it will stick before the next snafu. You might need to run Guided Set Up again to reload the channel list.
So much time and energy would be saved if TWC would simply post a notice of maintenance outages on the website.


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## JasonReiser (Dec 21, 2007)

Well look at that - sure enough, it's back on both of mine too. 

At least I won't have to wait at home for hours for an appointment now.


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## pgreene8 (Dec 31, 2005)

I'm taking a wait-and-see approach before cancelling the appointment. JCCFIN is probably right on the money about the massive overhaul. Every day a new surprise. Birthing pains, I guess


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## randymac88 (Feb 29, 2004)

Interesting...same problem here. I'm in lower manhattan, TivoHD, two SA cablecards. For the past few days one of my cards has been acting up and quite frankly, I thought it was the Tivo tuner that was beginning to fail. Anyway last night I felt inspired and pulled out one of the cablecards, and then re-seated it and restarted. No dice - nothing at all. So this morning I called TWCNYC and had him send a hit out to the cards...this allowed me to get the OTA channels only, nothing else. I set an appointment for Thursday.

I then switched out the TiVo in favor of my old HD box and have been watching on this POS 8300. Might try now to set the Tivo back up though as it sounds like things are back...will post my experience.


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## randymac88 (Feb 29, 2004)

randymac88 said:


> Might try now to set the Tivo back up though as it sounds like things are back...will post my experience.


Well lo and behold, TiVo is back up and running! Happy to hear this isn't an issue with my hardware! Still going to keep the appointment for the time being though. Thanks everyone for the info!


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## mr.wurtz (Jan 20, 2009)

I fixed the missing channel issue myself after I talked to Time Warner Cable and they sent signals to my box, which didn't work. They scheduled an appointment for a tech to come out, but the appointment was a week later. They told me to wait 24 hours and the condition should correct itself. I waited to more than 24 hours for the problem to correct itself, but it never did.

Here's what I did to get my channels back. I know it really sucks, and takes 30 minutes or so, but I repeated the guided setup and everything was back to normal. I hope this works for you other folks in Manhattan! I know how it feels when your TiVo HD is down!


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## marano (Dec 30, 2002)

My fix as of late has been reboot Tivo, have TW send a signal, if that doesn't work repeat guided setup, reboot Tivo, have TW send a signal, wait 24 hours.


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## lelandbk (Apr 8, 2009)

just got hit with a channel outage
- first hd channels (701-714 oddly) went out
- then rebooted, got nothing
- called twc, they guy sent a signal, then did some "we need to check your cards, one minute)
- he insisted that i, yet again need to have someone come to my apt to check it out
- i pleaded, that there is another way with my account not being set correctly and was lectured on how TWC does not recommend TiVos and I should consider their DVR solution
(Who do I complain to on this? FCC?)

- channels are slowly coming back, won't know if they are all there till morning

thinking about dumping TWC and going HULU via boxee + tivos amazon and netflix options


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## ggoldstein4 (Apr 15, 2009)

I recently bought a large flat screen HDTV and was dismayed to learn that I could not use my original (2003) TiVo box with it, that if I did, I would not be able to receive anything in HD. So I moved that box to another room with an older TV, and signed up for Time Warner DVR for the new HDTV.

Of course, after 6 years with TiVo, I hated the Time Warner DVR system immediately! It's clunky, slow, doesn't do many things that TiVo did, etc. And I've been considering getting a TiVo HD box. BUT...I've been reading all these recent posts, and I'm wondering if I'm just asking for trouble. 

Is there anyone out there who has TivoHD & Time Warner and is NOT experiencing problems? Or was, but is happy with the service now?


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## dfelska (Aug 25, 2007)

I have been dealing with the randomly missing channels issue for several months now, and it got really bad after they added the new HD channels around March.

Beyond frustrating...I have two TivoHDs, and the problem never occurred at the same time or in the same fasion, but USUALLY, it was the pay channels, and even then, it was usually the "new" HD channels that had issues - generally speaking, I always had the first channel of HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, but usually none of the channels like HBO2, HBO Comedy, etc.

Usually, within a couple of hours, of doing nothing, the channels would return, and then the cycle would repeat itself the next day.

Time Warner sent a tech, he measured the signal, said it was all well, and naturally with him onsite, everything was working perfectly. He did suggest that I ask for M-Cards the next time, if they had to come back. While he was very nice, he clearly didn't know much beyond that. He packed up his gear and left, and within about 10 minutes, I lost the channels like clockwork.

I called up again, and came close to using naughty words, and for my three months of hell, they gave me a stunningly generous $9.00 credit - wow, thanks.

Anyway, they scheduled another appointment, and I took another day off from work, and I specifically asked them to bring new M-Cards, which they promised to do.

Well, he showed up with the M-Cards, and after a few minutes on the phone, got them in. After about 20 minutes of firmware uprades, everything came online. That was about 5 days ago, and neither Tivo has had the issue since.

I am cautiously optimistic. These cards do appear to be a very different best from the old S-Cards - there are many more menus on the cablecard screens and the firmware and card manufacture dates are from 2008 and 2007 respectively, instead of 2005 and 2006 like my old cards. The tech told me they just got them recently.

Anyway, fingers crossed, I couldn't bear the thought of giving up my Tivo's for that crappy DVR they have.

Good luck, but I'd say this is worth giving a shot if you are at the end of the line with this issue. I'd also add that there is a small benefit in that you should be charged for half the cards you were since you only need one per Tivo now.

D


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## Enorris001 (Aug 22, 2002)

Now all of this just angers me!! I just got off the phone with TWC. 

Over the past few weeks I have been having issues with HD channels randomly not working. Wait a hour or two and all is fine. After the first day or two thought that maybe TWC was doing some upgrading. Now it has gone on too long. I called TWC to find out if there was an outage in area (Hudson Heights). No issues! I asked if there was an upgraded card. I have had my cards since 2006. The Customer service rep stated that they were the most up to date card. 

An added side note. I did have a complete loss (Internet and cable) the on Sat. for about 5 minutes around 11am.

The new M card supports 2 tuners per card?


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## hamaker (Jan 1, 2007)

In Chelsea, and I just experienced this problem again for the 4th time in a few months. Unplugging the Tivo for 5 minutes seems to bring the channels back within about 15 minutes.

Also curious about the updated cards. Is there any hassle just calling up and asking for them (it?)? I've had the current cards for about 2 1/2 years.

I'm getting so tired of TW, that I'm just waiting for word that FIOS is available in our building.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

Enorris001 said:


> The new M card supports 2 tuners per card?


It does, but only on the newer TivoHD model. The older TiVo Series3 model always requires two cards to support both tuners.


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## trishfitz (Mar 23, 2005)

According to the TW tech who came to my place earlier this week, if you request new cards, they'll bring them out. You may have to go through what I did, though, which is to have one visit where a whole lot of nothing happens, then a "wait and see" whether you lose channels again, and then they'll replace the cards. Sounds ridiculous to me, which is why I'm looking into switching providers. Looks like my other cable option is Cablevision, but they'll require a digital tuner box, so that's not too appealing.


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## hamaker (Jan 1, 2007)

trishfitz said:


> According to the TW tech who came to my place earlier this week, if you request new cards, they'll bring them out. You may have to go through what I did, though, which is to have one visit where a whole lot of nothing happens, then a "wait and see" whether you lose channels again, and then they'll replace the cards. Sounds ridiculous to me, which is why I'm looking into switching providers. Looks like my other cable option is Cablevision, but they'll require a digital tuner box, so that's not too appealing.


Wow, so they bring the cards and then you have to wait to lose channels (or have lost channels) while they are there?

I'm with you on switching providers, but we don't have an option yet.


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## trishfitz (Mar 23, 2005)

hamaker said:


> Wow, so they bring the cards and then you have to wait to lose channels (or have lost channels) while they are there?
> 
> I'm with you on switching providers, but we don't have an option yet.


Not _quite_ that bad, but close. He said "the next time you use channels," -- notice he didn't say "if" -- "call customer service and ask them to send out a tech to replace your cable cards." He was unable to replace them right then, because he didn't have cards with him, even though the customer service guy I spoke with put a note in the file that the problem might be cable card related.

Good times.


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## threephi (Jan 16, 2002)

Sorry to hear that people are still having this problem, but I can report that I haven't had any problems with this issue since shortly after my previous post in February. TW did switch my cards to M-type and I think the problem occurred once very soon after that. They gave my cards an authorization hit, and it hasn't happened since.


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## Tivortex (Feb 29, 2004)

Weird. This started happening to me about a month ago on the Denver Colorado COMCAST system and my S3 TiVo. Usually on Sunday evening I lose my premium (HBO, Showtime) channels, sometimes just for the evening, sometimes for a day or two. They have always come back eventually but is it ever frustrating.


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## trishfitz (Mar 23, 2005)

trishfitz said:


> Not _quite_ that bad, but close. He said "the next time you use channels," -- notice he didn't say "if" -- "call customer service and ask them to send out a tech to replace your cable cards." He was unable to replace them right then, because he didn't have cards with him, even though the customer service guy I spoke with put a note in the file that the problem might be cable card related.
> 
> Good times.


Lucky me -- I'm missing channels again today. Alas, the earliest time they can get somewhere here is a week from today. I'm really glad I'm paying for channels I can't receive...


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## tripmaster (May 27, 2003)

My CC are flaky as per this thread. Im getting TWC to come with new CCs, M Cards. 

Do I need to do anything special to pull out the old cards? I figure, standby, pull power, pull cards, restart, put in new cards as per instructions (1 at a time)

TIA.


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## hamaker (Jan 1, 2007)

tripmaster said:


> My CC are flaky as per this thread. Im getting TWC to come with new CCs, M Cards.
> 
> Do I need to do anything special to pull out the old cards? I figure, standby, pull power, pull cards, restart, put in new cards as per instructions (1 at a time)
> 
> TIA.


Hmmm. I think I'll just call and be a big enough pain until they agree to replace my cards. At least it removes that from the equation when troubleshooting.


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## threephi (Jan 16, 2002)

tripmaster said:


> My CC are flaky as per this thread. Im getting TWC to come with new CCs, M Cards.
> 
> Do I need to do anything special to pull out the old cards? I figure, standby, pull power, pull cards, restart, put in new cards as per instructions (1 at a time)
> 
> TIA.


Tripmaster, I would think you should just leave them in place and let the TWC tech do it. Or are they sending the cards to you by mail?


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## pgreene8 (Dec 31, 2005)

Trish - I'm in Manhattan & have had the same missing channels problem countless times. Usually I call Time Warner and ask them to send a signal to the CC and that fixes it. Today I was in no mood to call them. Instead I unplugged the cable modem for 5 minutes so it would reset and then I unplugged & replugged the Ethernet cable that runs from the modem to the Tivo and the missing channels returned. Miracolo. So much less time consuming.

I should add that I have tried pulling & restarting the cable card and it never worked.


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## bsjd00 (Sep 4, 2006)

Add me to the list of NYC residents with the same problem. I'm going to call TWC and ask them to re-authorize my cards in hopes that this will work, and I can then cancel my appointment for this week. Wow, am I really tired of channels randomly dropping out, and of TWC. Glad that we're getting Fios soon!


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