# Cable Card Install w/ Insight - No Prob.



## jhand_us (Dec 28, 2006)

Just to add to the noise of CC issues.... I was expecting some.. but much to my surprise the Insight Cable guy showed up and everything was installed correctly with zero issues. Love the TIVO. One note, the composite video looks better then the HDMI connection on my Sony HD DLP TV - I find this strange, but I'm not complaining.


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## jhand_us (Dec 28, 2006)

Sorry - double post, please delete this one.


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## jr1423 (Oct 4, 2007)

You're gonna love this one. I'm in Lexington, Kentucky and just called Insight to get a cable card for my new HD Tivo. The rep flat-out told me "Our Cable Cards don't work with TiVo." When pressed, she didn't really have a good reason. I mentioned that it is a standard and would probably work fine then asked why it works in my TV, but won't work for the TiVo and she said--and I'm not making this up--"Because we _allow_ it to work in your TV. It is _our_ system and TiVo isn't part of our system. I'm waiting for a manager to call me back now. If I don't make any progress with the manager, I'll call TiVo to see what they can do. I never thought I'd miss Comcast..


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## Grakthis (Oct 4, 2006)

jr1423 said:


> You're gonna love this one. I'm in Lexington, Kentucky and just called Insight to get a cable card for my new HD Tivo. The rep flat-out told me "Our Cable Cards don't work with TiVo." When pressed, she didn't really have a good reason. I mentioned that it is a standard and would probably work fine then asked why it works in my TV, but won't work for the TiVo and she said--and I'm not making this up--"Because we _allow_ it to work in your TV. It is _our_ system and TiVo isn't part of our system. I'm waiting for a manager to call me back now. If I don't make any progress with the manager, I'll call TiVo to see what they can do. I never thought I'd miss Comcast..


I'm in Louisville with Insight and had no issues and I had mine installed within a month of the S3 being released.

If the manager gives you issues, hang up and just don't mention TiVo when you call the next time. The actual installers are frequently smarter than the call center people.


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## boonie45 (Nov 29, 2006)

I, too, had no problems with the CC install here in Bloomington with Insight. Strange thing is, in Bedford, IN, (20 miles south), a friend of mine was told by Insight that they "never give out two cablecards" and that it's "against company policy." Sounds like someone needs a new copy of the handbook.


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## Tanner (May 28, 2003)

boonie45 said:


> I, too, had no problems with the CC install here in Bloomington with Insight. Strange thing is, in Bedford, IN, (20 miles south), a friend of mine was told by Insight that they "never give out two cablecards" and that it's "against company policy." Sounds like someone needs a new copy of the handbook.


new copy seriously? LOL. That presumes someone getting paid $8/hr CAN or WOULD read it. okay, generalizations aside, my CSR was a friggin' nazi about the cable card, you'd think I was trying to take her first born's kidney or something. She kept after it, wouldn't let it go, "It won't work w/ Tivo, I'm just letting you know, our cards do NOT work w/ tivo, THEY BLOW THEM UP, they do NOT work, do you have a TV w/ a CableCard spot?"

upon my telling her that I had one, she ask "is it in the back of the TV?" I said no, it was in the side (partly seeing if that was part of the book she was reading to me) sure enough, "Sir, it has to be in the BACK of your TV" @ this point I'm seriously pissed, only wishing I could have a good time w/ this, just not.

Yeah, you're right, it's in the back. Looks like I'm going to need TWO Cards though.

"Sir, we can't send to, only one, that's our policy. Now if you have 2 HD Tv's and the each have the slot, that's different."

OHHHHHHHH, ok, well, then I've got *TEN TV's* 

I think that pretty well did it for her belligerence. Apt. Schedules - the ONLY hope I've got is that this installer has 10% more brain capacity in his/her pinky than this lady did in her "brain." wow.

here's hoping I can have the sorta experience boonie & grakthis had!


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## insano5000 (Sep 10, 2007)

I had no issues once I was able to get the installer to come out here in Columbus. The lady on the phone said the usual... "We do not support Tivo", etc... I asked to speak to a manager and she then came back a few seconds later and scheduled an appointment.

Once the installer arrived we just went through the setup one card at a time no problem (Minus the Motorola error 10-4 error message that comes up during install, but that't normal accoring to the setup sheet). I get all my digital channels on both tuners with no problems.


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## Tanner (May 28, 2003)

well, we'll see how it goes tomorrow when they come out. Usually the tech's know far more than the "sales" or customer "service" people.


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## xkleyx (Aug 29, 2004)

I can feel some of your all's pain. It took about 6 months (it began in September 2006) for me to get my cable cards (although, I did take about 3 months off from trying). I did everything to get the cards. I even quoted FCC documentation. I spoke to countless reps and managers. Their response was a resounding, "We don't offer Cable Cards for Tivo at this time." So after taking about 3 months off from trying (as great as TiVo Series 3 is, it's not worth a heart attack  ), I sent an email from their site to a CSR or someone. Initially, I got that same response of "we don't offer cable cards at this time." My next email was one that included not only the FCC documentation but a link to the CableLabs site. ...and somehow that worked. Cable guy came in, set up everything, with no problems. 

To the people who were told that Insight won't give out 2 cable cards, they were going to give me 3. However, one of the cards didn't work, so the Cable guy took the one from my tv to put in the Tivo.


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## Grakthis (Oct 4, 2006)

Insight actually is one of the more competent and capable companies when it comes to CC, despite all their other flaws.

The reps seem to be pretty good at adding and removing channels at this point (I've droped HBO and added some of the digital packages and HD packs since subscribing w/ CC) and they have the pricing right (1.99, per card, no other fees).

The only trick is getting past the initial CSR to someone who actually has a clue.

Just pretending it's 2 TV's seems to be an effective method... I didn't bother telling the CSR what I wanted them in. I just said "I need 2 cable cards" and they scheduled a visit.

But Insight absolutly has the hardware infrastructure and the policies to get your S3 setup properly.


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## a68oliver (Jul 15, 2000)

I have just purchased a Samsung HD TV to use with my Series 3 on an Insight system in New Castle, IN. The TV is tuning the local stations unencrypted. However, the channel numbers it displays are a little confusing. Three of the stations list as the analog OTA #.1 (13.1, 29.1, 59.1) and three stations list as 82.1, 82.8, and 92.1. I can receive these in the clear with no CC or STB. My Tivo S3 can tune to 82.1 and 92.1. It is not producing a pic with 82.8. I can't find the lower numbered channels on the S3. Once, and only once, my TV refused to display a pic with 82.8. The pic returned a few minutes later. I suspect the signal is poor, although signal meters indicate the same amount of signal as on the other channels. 

An Insight brochure lists the digital channel numbers on their STB as 906, 908, 910, 912, 914, and 916. When I do a channel scan with my S3, it finds lots of scrambled digital channels, but only one or two of the unscrambled channels. I haven't figured out how to add the missing channels. Is there a way to manually add them to the channel list? I can tune them by punching in the correct numbers, I just can't memorize them into the list.

Since I receive these channels with no CC or STB, what functionality does adding a CC give me? I have been pretty confused about guide data, etc., as it relates to these digital channels. Will I have the same level of service on the digital channels that I have come to expect on my analog cable service if I lease the CC?

Hopefully, those of you on Insight in Indiana can tell me how this works.


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## demon (Nov 15, 2006)

a68oliver said:


> An Insight brochure lists the digital channel numbers on their STB as 906, 908, 910, 912, 914, and 916. When I do a channel scan with my S3, it finds lots of scrambled digital channels, but only one or two of the unscrambled channels. I haven't figured out how to add the missing channels. Is there a way to manually add them to the channel list? I can tune them by punching in the correct numbers, I just can't memorize them into the list.


Go to Messages & Settings -> Settings -> Channels -> Channel Scan (I believe), and run a scan there; if there are clear QAM channels, they'll be added to your channel list, and you can map them in or out at will. Unfortunately the channel numbers you mention from their documentation are *virtual* channel numbers - they're associated with the QAM channel-subchannel numbers via the CableCARDs or via PSIP (though it seems many cable operators don't bother injecting the necessary PSIP data for this).



a68oliver said:


> Since I receive these channels with no CC or STB, what functionality does adding a CC give me? I have been pretty confused about guide data, etc., as it relates to these digital channels. Will I have the same level of service on the digital channels that I have come to expect on my analog cable service if I lease the CC?


The CableCARD will decrypt any encrypted channels (digital basic, HD, premium channels, etc.), and manages the channel mappings from the virtual channel numbers the provider quotes in their documentation to the QAM channel-subchannel designations (which may be subject to change, depending on your provider and when/how they choose to reshuffle channels to balance out bandwidth allocation). Also, at least at present, the HD-capable TiVos don't support QAM channel remapping (this is a much-requested feature, there are many threads about it), so you won't be able to use guide data to automate recordings on those channels - you can do simple time-based recordings (including repeating recordings), but you won't get episode names, descriptions, actor/director/producer info, duplicate prevention, etc.


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## a68oliver (Jul 15, 2000)

I already did a channel scan and Tivo did not detect all the unscrambled channels. I can watch them by entering the channel number directly. Is there a way to add them to the channel list manually when they are not detected by the scan?


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## Tanner (May 28, 2003)

Tanner said:


> well, we'll see how it goes tomorrow when they come out. Usually the tech's know far more than the "sales" or customer "service" people.


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=369211


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## Tanner (May 28, 2003)

Grakthis said:


> I'm in Louisville with Insight and had no issues and I had mine installed within a month of the S3 being released.
> 
> If the manager gives you issues, hang up and just don't mention TiVo when you call the next time. The actual installers are frequently smarter than the call center people.


Did *anyone* get an M-Card? The installers have never heard of it, and teh Louisville "Tech Support" has never heard of it.

i've also tried using words like Multi-Stream M-Stream, and M-Card. No Luck.

Truck rolling now to bring the second S-card.  bleh.

How did you guys score the Multi-card, if you did...


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## Tanner (May 28, 2003)

got two S Cards now. Really would like a multi-CARD.


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## Grakthis (Oct 4, 2006)

Tanner said:


> Did *anyone* get an M-Card? The installers have never heard of it, and teh Louisville "Tech Support" has never heard of it.
> 
> i've also tried using words like Multi-Stream M-Stream, and M-Card. No Luck.
> 
> ...


I have a S3 not an HD. So my box doesn't even support M-Cards yet.

So the short answer is, they might not even have m-cards yet, but if they do the tech would be more likely to know than the CSR.


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## Tanner (May 28, 2003)

Grakthis said:


> I have a S3 not an HD. So my box doesn't even support M-Cards yet.
> 
> So the short answer is, they might not even have m-cards yet, but if they do the tech would be more likely to know than the CSR.


the tech, who was a nice guy, just simply told me, d00d, I've never heard of it, my super's never heard of it, so I'm not sayin' Insight doesn't have it, but we can't find one and we've never heard of it. Maybe you could call tech-support. So, I've called them, but the couple that I've got ahold of don't know what an M-Card or Multi-Stream Card is. Rather disheartening.  bleh.

*anyone else got an Mcard w/ Insight?*

I've also got discovery HD & Universal HD, but I'm never getting guide data - no matter how many times I refresh the guide/channel list.  that's getting to be very annoying.


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## Grakthis (Oct 4, 2006)

Tanner said:


> the tech, who was a nice guy, just simply told me, d00d, I've never heard of it, my super's never heard of it, so I'm not sayin' Insight doesn't have it, but we can't find one and we've never heard of it. Maybe you could call tech-support. So, I've called them, but the couple that I've got ahold of don't know what an M-Card or Multi-Stream Card is. Rather disheartening.  bleh.


Yeah... not too surprising. You might ask the guy to look into it and get back to you.

But basically, there is no rule that says they have to have M-cards. It's up to them if they want to go with the latest technology. I would expect that they will start getting them because they have to roll out cable boxes with cable cards in them now. And those should take m-cards. But I don't know anyone who has a new box with a cable card in it.



Tanner said:


> I've also got discovery HD & Universal HD, but I'm never getting guide data - no matter how many times I refresh the guide/channel list.  that's getting to be very annoying.


huh. I have guide data for DSCHD and UHD. I have no idea what might cause it to be missing just for those channels.

I also recently noticed that even without subscribing to the sports package, I get the NFL network and ESPNU. I wonder if they did that for UofL games and for the missed NFL games everyone threw a fit about last year?


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## demon (Nov 15, 2006)

Tanner said:


> I've also got discovery HD & Universal HD, but I'm never getting guide data - no matter how many times I refresh the guide/channel list.  that's getting to be very annoying.


When I ran into a situation like this, I had submitted a request to have the channels mapped to guide data to TiVo. They told me to do this:


Rerun Guided Setup.
Enter another zip code. Doesn't matter what it is, just something else.
When asked to choose a cable provider, say it's not listed there. When it asks if you're sure, say yes; it should give you the opportunity to reenter your zip code.
Enter the correct zip code.
Choose the correct provider.
Complete Guided Setup as usual.
This apparently forces the TiVo to pull the latest lineup data; it solved my problem, might be worth a shot.


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## Tanner (May 28, 2003)

Grakthis said:


> Yeah... not too surprising. You might ask the guy to look into it and get back to you.
> 
> But basically, there is no rule that says they have to have M-cards. It's up to them if they want to go with the latest technology. I would expect that they will start getting them because they have to roll out cable boxes with cable cards in them now. And those should take m-cards. But I don't know anyone who has a new box with a cable card in it.
> 
> ...


I had the DSCHD added, and must say, almost NOTHING on this LCD looks as good as Discovery HD Theater stuff, okay, well, maybe accept Football  Didn't know about the ESPNU though - I just assumed I wouldn't get that.

I've also enjoyed some stuff on HDNet - looks relaly nice as well 

demon - thanks for the tips on guide data - I'll do that this evening after the wife is finished "dancing" w/ the starz. thank GOD for the internets


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## Joybob (Oct 2, 2007)

Tanner said:


> I had the DSCHD added, and must say, almost NOTHING on this LCD looks as good as Discovery HD Theater stuff, okay, well, maybe accept Football  Didn't know about the ESPNU though - I just assumed I wouldn't get that.
> 
> I've also enjoyed some stuff on HDNet - looks relaly nice as well
> 
> demon - thanks for the tips on guide data - I'll do that this evening after the wife is finished "dancing" w/ the starz. thank GOD for the internets


HDnet and Discovery seem to be the only good HD channels.


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## Tanner (May 28, 2003)

Joybob said:


> HDnet and Discovery seem to be the only good HD channels.


Apparently I also get *HDNet Movies* now...

I'll add what else I get after I click through a few of these. Oh, and guide data is up on all of 'em too 

I'm not getting the ESPNU unfortunately - or does it only offer programming infrequently?


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## raiden256 (Mar 30, 2002)

Dude, did you have ESPNU for the Louisville game? If that was on in HD and I didn't know it, I swear to god...


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## Grakthis (Oct 4, 2006)

Tanner said:


> Apparently I also get *HDNet Movies* now...
> 
> I'll add what else I get after I click through a few of these. Oh, and guide data is up on all of 'em too
> 
> I'm not getting the ESPNU unfortunately - or does it only offer programming infrequently?


Not in HD. Just standard ESPNU? It should be in the 700's I think. It offers programming 24/7.

It was weird. I discovered it when UofL was playing NC State and it was on ESPNU and I didn't realize it in advance. I flipped to it to randomly see if I got it, and sure enough. Then I called my bro, and he told me to try NFL NEtwork and I got it too. So we thought at first that they messed up and gave me the whole sports package, but I didn't get VS Network.

I have since subscribed to the full sports package, but I thought maybe the gave everyone ESPNU since UofL has played away games on it twice this year already.

Getting the HD Pack is completely worth it. HDNet movies and UHD show tons of great old movies in HD and I tend to watch them more than I watched the stuff on HBO (I have since dropped HBO).

I Tivo'd the Searchers, Full Metal Jacket, Taxi Driver and Cool Hand Luke off of there not too long ago. I tend to scroll ahead and see what movies are coming up in the next 2 weeks and set some to TiVo.



Raiden said:


> Dude, did you have ESPNU for the Louisville game? If that was on in HD and I didn't know it, I swear to god...


It wasn't in HD. It was just digital SD.


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## Tarik (Aug 19, 2006)

Hi everyone and Happy New Year 2008. Long time reader, first time caller.
Has anyone been experiencing blackouts of HD Channels with Cable Cards?
Sometime all I can get is local HD channels but none of the HD packages until I restart Tivo.
please advise.


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## URPREY (Sep 12, 2003)

No issues for me in Louisville. Is this a new issue for you?


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## Tarik (Aug 19, 2006)

URPREY said:


> No issues for me in Louisville. Is this a new issue for you?


I had insight send me another signal. Everything seems to be working


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## a68oliver (Jul 15, 2000)

My original Tivo S3 with Insight Motorola S-cards was recently stolen. After replacing the Tivo I called Insight to re-install CableCards.

The installation went about as smoothly as the first install. It took about 45 minutes. My installer had never done a Tivo before, just as my 1st installer.

We spot checked the encrypted and unencrypted channels and everything seemed to be fine. However, the next day I realized that the Music Choice channels were not coming in. I called and scheduled an appointment for a tech to troubleshoot it.

However, I got to reading the Troubleshooting guide I had downloaded, I think from Tivo. I thought that this has to be a setup problem on my account or something. I called them back and explained what the troubleshooting guide suggested for missing channels. 

They hit my cards again and one of my cards began receiving the missing channels. However, the other card reported NO channels. I thought this was worse than before we started. However, a couple of more hits from Insight and the problem was corrected. 

There is a field in the Conditional Access screen which is quite helpful. It is the "Auth:" field. It reported "MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY". After the hits, it changed to "SUBSCRIBED".


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