# Bolt not working with Mediacom



## Rod Williams (Jan 30, 2008)

I recently became a mediacom customer and bought a bolt instead of renting. Cable card install, pairing, etc seemed to go fine until we realized we were not getting all our subscribed channels. We can get basic tier, but not family tier. We have re-paired the cable card, had a technician out, and no luck. 
What could be causing this?


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

You CableCard is the only thing that controls what channels you can watch. Mediacom has control of what gets downloaded into your CableCard. My advice would be to roll another truck and don't let him leave until you can see your premiums.


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## Rod Williams (Jan 30, 2008)

We are hoping that it is the cablecard. We do have another tech coming with a new card next friday. They tend to want to blame the tivo bolt.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

Rod Williams said:


> We are hoping that it is the cablecard. We do have another tech coming with a new card next friday. They tend to want to blame the tivo bolt.


Is it a Motorola or SA/Cisco Cablecard? You can easily tell if it is paired correctly in the Cablecard settings but it depends on your brand as to what to look for.


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## Rod Williams (Jan 30, 2008)

We tried another cable card today and it didn't work. We are running out of options. Is there anyone out there that is using a retail Bolt with their cable provider? If so, are you getting all your subscribed channels. I am afraid our provider is going to tell us that the problem is with the bolt. Not sure what we would do at that point.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

Rod Williams said:


> We tried another cable card today and it didn't work. We are running out of options. Is there anyone out there that is using a retail Bolt with their cable provider? If so, are you getting all your subscribed channels. I am afraid our provider is going to tell us that the problem is with the bolt. Not sure what we would do at that point.


If every time a cable company failed to properly support their cable cards, people gave up, Tivo and every other cable card device company would have been gone years ago. Cable companies lose money with every cable card out there, they have absolutely no financial reason to learn how to make them work properly. You are a typical subscriber, "afraid" that they will blame your equipment, when what you should be is absolutely furious that so many years have passed since the company was required by the folks who give them the right to be in business and they still play these games. 
File a complaint with the FCC, it is the only leverage you have with the cable company. They don't like to get complaints from the FCC, oh and they have to respond to them. https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

Rod Williams said:


> We tried another cable card today and it didn't work. We are running out of options. Is there anyone out there that is using a retail Bolt with their cable provider? If so, are you getting all your subscribed channels. I am afraid our provider is going to tell us that the problem is with the bolt. Not sure what we would do at that point.


If you posted the details of the pairing information from your TiVo, we would be able to tell if the problem is the cablecard activation or the pairing. The info needed is different depending on the brand of your cablecard.


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## Rod Williams (Jan 30, 2008)

I can tell you that the 2 non-working cablecards did pair. The Mediacom online tech said that everything looked fine on their end. He could not explain why I can not receive the Family tier programming. 
Both cards are Motorolas. I am afraid that it is not goimg to mater how many cards we try, it still won't work.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

Rod Williams said:


> I can tell you that the 2 non-working cablecards did pair. The Mediacom online tech said that everything looked fine on their end. He could not explain why I can not receive the Family tier programming.
> Both cards are Motorolas. I am afraid that it is not goimg to mater how many cards we try, it still won't work.


How do you know they paired? Don't trust a rep from MediaCom. It could just be activated and not paired. That will get you some channels but not others.

Does the conditional access have a line that reads?

Con: Yes EBCP: Yes Val: V (followed by a number)

If you don't have Yes by Con and V by Val then it is not paired.


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## Rod Williams (Jan 30, 2008)

rainwater said:


> How do you know they paired? Don't trust a rep from MediaCom. It could just be activated and not paired. That will get you some channels but not others.
> 
> Does the conditional access have a line that reads?
> 
> ...


Rainwater, Thanks for your help. I can tell that the card is paired by looking at the cablecard info. 
The conditional access page does show con as yes and V by Val. What's missing(as per a Tivo tech) is that on this same page there should be a "Auth" line and there is not. She said this means that the card is not authorized to get the channels. I called mediacom again and gave them this info and they still could not figure out why it is not working. This tech assured me that the card was ok. 
It seems to me that mediacom is missing something. 
This Friday I have a local tech coming out again. If he can't figure it out, he is supposed get Tivo on the phone for help.
Whew. Why so complicated?


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## omahajs (Oct 27, 2006)

I have Cox in a different state, but are you sure you don't need a tuning adapter with Mediacom in your area? Sounds similar to problems I had before getting the TA - everything looked fine on their end but some channels didn't come in. Working great ever since with roamio and now bolt.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Rod Williams said:


> Rainwater, Thanks for your help. I can tell that the card is paired by looking at the cablecard info. The conditional access page does show con as yes and V by Val. What's missing(as per a Tivo tech) is that on this same page there should be a "Auth" line and there is not. She said this means that the card is not authorized to get the channels. I called mediacom again and gave them this info and they still could not figure out why it is not working. This tech assured me that the card was ok. It seems to me that mediacom is missing something. This Friday I have a local tech coming out again. If he can't figure it out, he is supposed get Tivo on the phone for help. Whew. Why so complicated?


Maybe they didn't properly provision it in their system first, before giving you the cards?


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## Rod Williams (Jan 30, 2008)

They said the cards were active. Is that the same as provisioned?


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Rod Williams said:


> They said the cards were active. Is that the same as provisioned?


Not sure, do you mean "activated" or just "active"?

Like all equipment that is deployed out into their system in the field, which includes boxes, DVRs, modems, etc., the device in question must be put into their headend database so that when it connects to their infrastructure and says, "Hey, I'm a Motorola cable box, my name is XXXXX and my serial number is YYYYYYYYY and my MAC address is ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ. Can I join your network?" The headend/server, if the device is provisioned properly, replies..."Hi, yes I recognize you, you are welcome to join us!".

At this point your device is on the network so that when you call in to activate, the CSR can see your device is there, ready and waiting for the follow on pairing and activation signals to be sent to authorize the device to do whatever its designed to do on that network, be it a box, DVR, cablecard, modem, etc.

If your device was never provisioned properly to allow it to be on their network, then no amount of "sending hits, authorization signals, etc. is going to properly activate and allow your device to work 100%, if at all.

Of course this is a very simplified and rudimentary explanation and some things may be wrong now, but that's the gist of it anyway. Maybe someone that's worked with an MSO Headend more recently than I can chime in with more details?


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