# Official Cincinnati Bell FiOptic and Premiere/XL Cable Card Thread



## gamo62 (Oct 12, 2002)

This thread is for those of us here in the Cincinnati area, who have FiOptic w/ Cable Cards and the new Premiere. Please post any issues or successes that you have with their cable cards.


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## jhauser77 (Jan 4, 2011)

Cincinnati Bell guy came by today and it looks like a great deal. I'm tired of Time Warner and big bills. I'll post my experience here.


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## jhauser77 (Jan 4, 2011)

Im signed up and installer is coming Tuesday the 18th


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## gamo62 (Oct 12, 2002)

Enjoy! The only complaint. Cbell charges $7.95 a month for the cable card. To them it is the same price as an HD box.


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## daisylvr (Dec 20, 2010)

Hi,
My family got Cincinnati Bell Fioptics just before Christmas. We are so thrilled to be rid of Time Warner Cable. My husband has a Tivo HD and I have a Premiere XL. Everything is working great and we are loving it! The install did take more than a day (we got a bundle package with phone, internet and TV). They got my husband's Tivo HD working fairly quickly but it took them quite a few hours to get my PremiereXL set up. They finally did though. It's so nice to be rid of Time Warner's DRM. I can use my Tivo Desktop plus for HD shows now and we can transfer HD shows from Tivo to Tivo to view in different rooms.


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## jhauser77 (Jan 4, 2011)

installer here now. He didn't know I had tivo even though I had told sales guy clearly and had at length discussion. It's going to take longer too because the wire at the road is further up the street at the intersection. other than that he seems pretty confidant.


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## jhauser77 (Jan 4, 2011)

Second installer hear today. He brought M Card but we arn't getting channels/signal. The guide is pulling up with show info but the stations are not showing the shows. Teck is on phone with his helpers trying to do activation.


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## jhauser77 (Jan 4, 2011)

Do I have to change any internal settings on the Tivo Premier since it's a new cable provider, cable M card and I no longer use a tuning adapter?

The guide is recognizing channels but it is not showing live tv or any channels.


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## jhauser77 (Jan 4, 2011)

Working. My bad. 
YOU DO HAVE TO SETUP TO A NEW CABLE PROVIDER. We may have been have been getting channels with first M card but we didn't know to to reset the channel guide. 
Whoops. We tried 3 cards before we figured it out.


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## angs9 (Jun 9, 2006)

So I just found out that Fioptics is available in my area. I called to see what a bundled service would cost and was told that they do not offer cableCARDS in my area. I pointed out that many other Fioptics customers happily use cableCARDS with their Tivo's. I was informed that only the system in my area doesn't support cableCARDS. When I asked if there were any plans to add cableCARD service to my area he said I'd have to keep calling and checking. Anyone else have any experience with this?

Thanks


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## gamo62 (Oct 12, 2002)

If they offer a box, then they are REQUIRED by the FCC to offer a cable card. Call them back and ask them what type of box they use? There are two different types. We have the Cisco box, which uses SA cable cards. They also have Moto boxes as well. Thanks.


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## angs9 (Jun 9, 2006)

gamo62 said:


> If they offer a box, then they are REQUIRED by the FCC to offer a cable card. Call them back and ask them what type of box they use? There are two different types. We have the Cisco box, which uses SA cable cards. They also have Moto boxes as well. Thanks.


I actually mentioned that. The guy put me on hold and came back quite some time later to tell me that yeah, they definitely weren't offering them. I guess I could file a complaint with the FCC.


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## dzucco (Sep 17, 2009)

Cincinnati Bell does not offer traditional cable services in all parts of town. The new system is an IPTV platform that does not use RF technology. There are no requirements to provide Cablecards on IP based services, and there aren't any set tops supporting them either. The newer set top boxes are manufactured by ZTE. The CableCard enabled boxes are either Motorola or Cisco.


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## angs9 (Jun 9, 2006)

dzucco said:


> Cincinnati Bell does not offer traditional cable services in all parts of town. The new system is an IPTV platform that does not use RF technology. There are no requirements to provide Cablecards on IP based services, and there aren't any set tops supporting them either. The newer set top boxes are manufactured by ZTE. The CableCard enabled boxes are either Motorola or Cisco.


Darrick,
Thanks for your quick reply. While this is obviously disappointing, (The internet speeds and correctly flagged Cablecard were most likely more than enough to lure me away from TW) I understand that there probably aren't enough cablecard customers to make offering them everywhere worthwhile. Certainly not without the FCC requirement to do so.

However, it would have made for a much less frustrating experience if either the salesman who came to my door or the two representatives I spoke to on the phone had been able to offer the above explanation. When I mentioned that I was reading posts from other Cincinnati Bell customers that had Cablecards they couldn't explain how that was possible. They essentially didn't know anything other than that I couldn't get one.


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