# Tivo Bolt & Fios HBO/Max issues



## JayMan747 (Nov 10, 2008)

Just installed Tivo, with FIOS Cable Card and after a long chat session with Tech Support, they were able to activate the card and I'm receiving some channels...

I'm able to receive several of the premium channels, but not HBO or Cinemax.

Has anyone else had this issue?


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## Scott R. Scherr (Aug 6, 2003)

They did not properly pair the cable card to your Tivo. HBO and Cinemax are copy protected and will not work if your cable card is not properly paired. Call your cable company to get it paired.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

JayMan747 said:


> Just installed Tivo, with FIOS Cable Card and after a long chat session with Tech Support, they were able to activate the card and I'm receiving some channels...
> 
> I'm able to receive several of the premium channels, but not HBO or Cinemax.
> 
> Has anyone else had this issue?


It sounds like the cable card is not paired. Check the Fox owned channels too. Like FX or National Geographic. You need a paired cable card to receive those channels too.

I just recently needed to repair the two cable cards in my Bolts after running mfsr on them. Before pairing it was the same thing. I could receive all channels except HBO, Cinemax and Fox owned channels. I used chat to repair them . Within a minute or two of them entering the pairing info, I started receiving all those channels.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

The cablecard was activated but not paired.

The fastest way I've learned to deal with this is to follow @verizonsupport on twitter, ask them to follow you back, and then PM them asking for a *manual validation* of your cablecard. Give them the Serial Number, Host ID, Data ID, and CC ID. They will usually respond and having it going in a few minutes. These guys are superheroes compared to phone support.


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## SDD (Jan 9, 2017)

Just wanted to chime in on this. You all were exactly right. When I did the fios online activation, HBO didn't work - I didn't even notice that FX, NatGeo, and probably other channels didn't work until I read the comments above and checked. I called Verizon, got through to the Tech Support (don't bother with the customer support person who answers the phone - ask to go straight to tech support for cable cards), and asked the guy to do MANUAL VALIDATION of my cable card, exactly as suggested above. He asked for the serial number, host id, data id etc, did his magic and within a few seconds it was working great. It took about 2 minutes start to finish once he answered the phone. So thanks for sharing your knowledge!


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## rxlowry (May 23, 2011)

I have a series 4 that lost HBO and Cinemax when I upgraded the hard drive. USed verizon support through twitter and they were able to manually validate the card and get HBO back.


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## George hauck (Jul 30, 2018)

Got it up and running after fios phone reps told me there was a known issue with cable cards and hbo working with certain tivo models. Followed the above solution from big Jim outlaw. Had it up with 5. minutes. Thanks, Jim!

The cablecard was activated but not paired.

The fastest way I've learned to deal with this is to follow @verizonsupport on twitter, ask them to follow you back, and then PM them asking for a *manual validation* of your cablecard. Give them the Serial Number, Host ID, Data ID, and CC ID. They will usually respond and having it going in a few minutes. These guys are superheroes compared to phone support.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I don't even bother with having FiOS repair my cards any more. I order new cards since a FIOS store is only a few minutes away. And return the old cards. The new cards come with the codes needed to pair through their automated process.

In the past, when re-pairing a card it has been hit or miss. So basically 50% of the time I had issues. While with getting new cards each time I've had over 90% success rate.

I started getting the new cable cards in late 2015 or early 2016. After I had a terrible experience one time with re-paring. And the tech screwed everything up so bad that I could only receive local channels. I spent a couple of hours in chat and on the phone with multiple people and they said there was no way to fix it. So since then ordering a new card has been painless. I can order it in the morning and pick it up on the way home from work. And have it installed and receiving all the channels in five to ten minutes.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> I started getting the new cable cards in late 2015 or early 2016. After I had a terrible experience one time with re-paring. And the tech screwed everything up so bad that I could only receive local channels. I spent a couple of hours in chat and on the phone with multiple people and they said there was no way to fix it. So since then ordering a new card has been painless. I can order it in the morning and pick it up on the way home from work. And have it installed and receiving all the channels in five to ten minutes.


When we installed FIOS service at my son's apartment at college a couple of years ago, it did take the installer a while to get the CableCARD paired with an HD (he had to get someone on the phone eventually), but we just moved that CableCARD to a new Bolt and I didn't have any issues getting it repaired through phone support.

Scott


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

HerronScott said:


> When we installed FIOS service at my son's apartment at college a couple of years ago, it did take the installer a while to get the CableCARD paired with an HD (he had to get someone on the phone eventually), but we just moved that CableCARD to a new Bolt and I didn't have any issues getting it repaired through phone support.
> 
> Scott


yes sometimes it works without a hitch over the phone or with the automated system. But I've re-paired cable cards on FiOS many dozens of times over the years. And unfortunately I've found there were issues re-pairing around half the time. issues from human error with the tech/csr.


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