# Better Cable Card Set-up



## Emacee (Dec 15, 2000)

There has to be a better way to set up a new Comcast with an M-cable card than calling the cable company and reading off numbers on the phone. I recently set up a new box: Spent half a day (on and off) on the phone before they agreed to send out service rep. The cable card can talk to the cable company to order on demand programming. It should be able to send set-up and diagnostic information, also.


----------



## WhiskeyTango (Sep 20, 2006)

Thats not now a cable card works. It's a one way device.


----------



## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Do you know what the field rep will do? Call someone in the back office.

Were you talking with the cablecard hotline folks? They are better than a normal CSR (but not always). 

Before dealing with a field rep, I would escallate to a higher level. Their CARES group has more leverage than a phone rep. No need for a trip unless you have bad signal levels.


----------



## ramblinche81 (Oct 7, 2012)

Emacee said:


> There has to be a better way to set up a new Comcast with an M-cable card than calling the cable company and reading off numbers on the phone. I recently set up a new box: Spent half a day (on and off) on the phone before they agreed to send out service rep. The cable card can talk to the cable company to order on demand programming. It should be able to send set-up and diagnostic information, also.


I am on my fourth TiVo install in last four months. No issues at all working with Comcast CCard team.

The card either works, or not, if the card doesn't work during initial load and install and give channels within 40minutes, don't waste your time, replace it.

The failure rate for the cards seems to be higher than anyone would expect.

One of my boxes did take three cards. The first two failed. Fortunately, I already had two boxes working so I was comfortable with the pairing and start up processes.


----------



## csm10495 (Nov 15, 2008)

Emacee said:


> There has to be a better way to set up a new Comcast with an M-cable card than calling the cable company and reading off numbers on the phone. I recently set up a new box: Spent half a day (on and off) on the phone before they agreed to send out service rep. The cable card can talk to the cable company to order on demand programming. It should be able to send set-up and diagnostic information, also.


I believe that Comcast On Demand is delivered via an internet connection. It doesn't use the cablecard for sending those signals. Comcast is one of the only providers to allow the TiVo to access on demand. In the future maybe card activation could occur automatically over the web, and yet once that happens, what would be the point of the card? The channel authentication (what the card does) could also be done online. Providers won't like this because they won't have a reason to charge TiVo users any type of equipment fee.


----------

