# Tivo Premier Incompatible with Charter Communications



## billjohnson101 (Jun 1, 2012)

I have a Tivo Premier HD Series 4 which previously worked perfectly with Comcast. I moved into a Charter Communications-only community and my Tivo has proven to be incompatible with Charter. After escalating through both Charter and Tivo technical support, both organizations have thrown up their hands and said there is nothing they can do about it.

Problem: Charter supplies a Motorola tuning adaptor for Tivo installations. With the tuning adaptor in, most HD channels cannot be received. Where the HD channels should be other (lower) channels are received instead. Strangely, with the tuning adaptor out, the HD channels are received fine, but other channels (presumably the "switched digital" channels) cannot be received. So there is no way to win. My choice is to leave the tuning adaptor out so I can get (most) of the HD channels and forego the other channels.


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

Any chance they can rustle up a Cisco TA from outside their area? I have Charter in Riverside, CA and they gave me a Cisco TA and cable card. The two worked immediately with my premeire.



billjohnson101 said:


> I have a Tivo Premier HD Series 4 which previously worked perfectly with Comcast. I moved into a Charter Communications-only community and my Tivo has proven to be incompatible with Charter. After escalating through both Charter and Tivo technical support, both organizations have thrown up their hands and said there is nothing they can do about it.
> 
> Problem: Charter supplies a Motorola tuning adaptor for Tivo installations. With the tuning adaptor in, most HD channels cannot be received. Where the HD channels should be other (lower) channels are received instead. Strangely, with the tuning adaptor out, the HD channels are received fine, but other channels (presumably the "switched digital" channels) cannot be received. So there is no way to win. My choice is to leave the tuning adaptor out so I can get (most) of the HD channels and forego the other channels.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

UCLABB said:


> Any chance they can rustle up a Cisco TA from outside their area? I have Charter in Riverside, CA and they gave me a Cisco TA and cable card. The two worked immediately with my premeire.


You can't use a Cisco TA on a Motorola system.

I would suggest doing a Clear and Delete Everything to wipe out any mappings that may be lingering from the Comcast set-up.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I have Charter and 3 TiVos with Motorola TAs and they work fine. Sounds like your cable companies SD mapping is wrong.

Dan


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

I had trouble with a new Elite + TA recently where with TA I couldn't tune any channel - even unencrypted and non-SDV ones. Without TA I could tune non-SDV channels. Eventually re-doing guided setup with TA connected (even though I had specified correct zip and channel lineup the 1st time) fixed the problem.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

billjohnson101 said:


> I have a Tivo Premier HD Series 4 which previously worked perfectly with Comcast. I moved into a Charter Communications-only community and my Tivo has proven to be incompatible with Charter. After escalating through both Charter and Tivo technical support, both organizations have thrown up their hands and said there is nothing they can do about it.
> 
> Problem: Charter supplies a Motorola tuning adaptor for Tivo installations. With the tuning adaptor in, most HD channels cannot be received. Where the HD channels should be other (lower) channels are received instead. Strangely, with the tuning adaptor out, the HD channels are received fine, but other channels (presumably the "switched digital" channels) cannot be received. So there is no way to win. My choice is to leave the tuning adaptor out so I can get (most) of the HD channels and forego the other channels.


If you are using the white cable provided by the Motorola adapter, get a real piece of cable. It is possible it is just signal quality issue and the cable they provide is terrible.


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## ajwees41 (May 7, 2006)

billjohnson101 said:


> I have a Tivo Premier HD Series 4 which previously worked perfectly with Comcast. I moved into a Charter Communications-only community and my Tivo has proven to be incompatible with Charter. After escalating through both Charter and Tivo technical support, both organizations have thrown up their hands and said there is nothing they can do about it.
> 
> Problem: Charter supplies a Motorola tuning adaptor for Tivo installations. With the tuning adaptor in, most HD channels cannot be received. Where the HD channels should be other (lower) channels are received instead. Strangely, with the tuning adaptor out, the HD channels are received fine, but other channels (presumably the "switched digital" channels) cannot be received. So there is no way to win. My choice is to leave the tuning adaptor out so I can get (most) of the HD channels and forego the other channels.


dd you redo guided setup?


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

rainwater said:


> If you are using the white cable provided by the Motorola adapter, get a real piece of cable. It is possible it is just signal quality issue and the cable they provide is terrible.


Doubtful. If it were a signal strength problem, he would either see nothing or a something unwatchable rather than the wrong channel.

I add my voice to those suggesting redoing guided setup with the TA attached. And make sure you choose the correct lineup.

I vehemently disagree with the suggestion of doing a C&DE.

I assume you have already installed and paired the CableCARD you got from Charter.


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## SNJpage1 (May 25, 2006)

Can you connect the tuning adapter to the OTA cable input?


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## billjohnson101 (Jun 1, 2012)

CoxInPHX you win the prize! The issue is resolved. What was required was to Clear and Delete Everything. I cannot tell you how often I redid Setup, but it never accomplished anything. I guess maybe there was something left over from the old Comcast setup that did not get cleared before. Thank you all for your suggestions. You accomplished what the tech support could not.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

After C&DE I think you will now have to re-pair your cablecard if you didn't already.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

While a C&DE may have seemingly fixed the problem, I tend to doubt it was necessary. Then again, there is enough else screwed up about the current Premiere s/w that I suppose it is possible.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

Other than repeated Guided Set-Ups, which the OP tried, what other options would you have attempted that you think would have resolved the issue?


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

SNJpage1 said:


> Can you connect the tuning adapter to the OTA cable input?


Do you mean the threaded thing on the back of the TiVo where an antenna is supposed to attach if one wishes to receive actual over the air broadcasts?


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## SNJpage1 (May 25, 2006)

Unitron yes it would be the annt in


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

SNJpage1 said:


> Unitron yes it would be the annt in


Okay, I'm still on analog cable and haven't had to mess with TAs yet, but I'm not seeing the reasoning behind your suggestion.

As I understand it, the TA connects to the cable company's cable just to send messages back up the line.

If it has a co-ax output as well as input, that would only be for passthrough I would think, so connecting it to ANT in would be like connecting the cableco cable directly to ANT in, which would be pointless, as the modulation scheme isn't the same between digital OTA and digital cable.

Feel free to tell me if I'm wrong about any of this, 'cause I'm sure I could be.


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## jtnewlands (Nov 18, 2012)

Older thread but I just had Charter installer here and he said Tivo instructions incorrect for TA hookup - he says split coax out of wall, one goes to RF in on Tivo, other goes to TA RF in, TA RF out not used... only connection is USB. It works - for digital and SDV channels. Before he did this I was getting "not authorized" on all channels above basic cable.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

If you connect the TA inline, the built-in splitter inside the TA will attenuate the signal. The splitter will as well, but for some reason not as much. I had to use the same setup when I was on Time Warner Cable and had those awful TA's.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Yeah my installer said the splitter inside the TA is terrible and went as far as to put some sort of block on it to prevent me from using the output port. So apparently this is a universal problem with these units. 

Dan


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## jfharrison (Dec 31, 2006)

I don't understand all the stuff in this thread, maybe it doesn't apply to me.
I have Charter basic+extended cable. AFAIK, it is NOT digital. It's not HD. I don't have a box in my house, just a coax cable.

I have a Series 2 and am seriously considering the Tivo Premiere that I see advertised for $149.

What I'd like to know is if that unit will replace my Series 2 and work correctly. I thought it would until I read this thread and now I'm seriously doubting it.

Thanks, jon


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

jfharrison said:


> I don't understand all the stuff in this thread, maybe it doesn't apply to me.
> I have Charter basic+extended cable. AFAIK, it is NOT digital. It's not HD. I don't have a box in my house, just a coax cable.
> 
> I have a Series 2 and am seriously considering the Tivo Premiere that I see advertised for $149.
> ...


The $149 box is a regular 2-tuner Premiere which supports analog & digital cable and digital OTA, so you should be fine.

It is the Premiere 4 and the Premiere XL4 which work only on digital cable that would be problematic.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

jfharrison said:


> I don't understand all the stuff in this thread, maybe it doesn't apply to me.
> I have Charter basic+extended cable. AFAIK, it is NOT digital. It's not HD. I don't have a box in my house, just a coax cable.
> 
> I have a Series 2 and am seriously considering the Tivo Premiere that I see advertised for $149.
> ...


Your Series 2 is tuning in analog cable channels, which means Charter in your area hasn't discontinued them for all digital yet.

A Series 3 or the 2 tuner Series 4s will tune analog cable for now, as well as digital over the air broadcast (which the S2 can't do) and will be able to tune digital cable as well, if they discontine analog channels, although you'll probably need a cable card installed in the TiVo, which S3s and S4s are set up for.


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## jfharrison (Dec 31, 2006)

unitron said:


> Your Series 2 is tuning in analog cable channels, which means Charter in your area hasn't discontinued them for all digital yet.
> 
> A Series 3 or the 2 tuner Series 4s will tune analog cable for now, as well as digital over the air broadcast (which the S2 can't do) and will be able to tune digital cable as well, if they discontine analog channels, although you'll probably need a cable card installed in the TiVo, which S3s and S4s are set up for.


Unitron & James:

Thanks, I needed the confirmation. Now I can feel secure to make that purchase and then when Charter pulls the plug on analog I can start squirming all over again. Hope that is more than a year or two from now. Gotta make a lifetime subscription pay.

Jon


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

One way to make it pay- sell it before its too late! Seriously, with lifetime its worth something now, I would take advantage of that.


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