# Just ordered Premiere box. Have Comcast. Tips to making upgrade go smoothly?



## quercus (Nov 29, 2007)

I have Comcast service and am upgrading from SD with a TiVo Series 2 to HD and Premiere Box.

In previous experience I know that Comcast service can be very hit or miss. Some techs and phone reps are knowledgeable but just as many are completely clueless.

Any tips on what I can do to make the switchover go smoothly?


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## rsnaider (Apr 25, 2002)

Complete Guided Setup once the box arrives and make sure they know you need an M card.

For the rest, pray as the results posted here seem very mixed.


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## ldobson (Jan 18, 2004)

Well we have to assume it will fail first time. The reason why you are getting:

(a) no channels at all
(b) only analog channels (No Digital)
(c) only digital (NO HD)

Is because the card is not configured correctly at the head-end. Which will require any of the following:

(a) firmware update
(b) multiple initlization signals
(c) multiple staged hit signals
(d) multiple authorisation signals
(d) have headend check outlets are configured as cable card outlets
(e) have headend check correct billing codes on your account
(f) numerous Comcast Techs sent out over a period of two weeks for a problem that needs to be fixed at the headend.

When you have pulled out all your hair, you should contact [email protected].


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## quercus (Nov 29, 2007)

Well, that's not encouraging. rsnaider suggested praying. Is any particular God preferred? I want to maximize my chances.


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## rocko (Oct 29, 2002)

quercus said:


> Well, that's not encouraging. rsnaider suggested praying. Is any particular God preferred? I want to maximize my chances.


Pray to 'em All.


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## DaveWhittle (Jul 25, 2002)

Ask for a Comcast tech (they may refer to this as an "in-house" truck), not a contractor.

Also ask for them to bring as many M Cablecards as they can get their hands on. If you are having difficulties with the first card, switch to another card and you might have different results. (My install had a lot of problems with the first card tried, but the second one paired quickly.)

If you get a tech that rarely (if ever) does cablecards/TiVo installs, ask them if they know someone at the head-end they can talk to that's familiar with the pairing process. The person at the other end of the phone needs to know how to set up your account properly for billing, to do a "staged hit" on the cablecard, and other things that might not be apparent to someone unfamiliar with the process.

Good luck - it might not be as bad as you think! Report back as to how things go for you.


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## ldobson (Jan 18, 2004)

DaveWhittle said:


> Ask for a Comcast tech (they may refer to this as an "in-house" truck), not a contractor.
> 
> Also ask for them to bring as many M Cablecards as they can get their hands on. If you are having difficulties with the first card, switch to another card and you might have different results. (My install had a lot of problems with the first card tried, but the second one paired quickly.)
> 
> ...


Dave has a VERY good point, request a comcast employee, specifically someone who is a cablecard specialist, comcast contractors will make up a random excuse and leave when it doesnt work first time. Dont sign the pink sheet of paper until you have checked you have analog, digital, HD and any premium channels as this releases them from the job.

99% of the time, the problem lies with the headend, this last time my cards needed paired they were insisting on rolling a truck as 1-800-COMCAST were claiming they could not contact anyone at the headend.

I contacted the comcast cares group with all the pertinant information and got corporate management and the Tech Ops groups involved, who were able to resolve the problem for me. I will not hesitate to go this route for anything and everything in the future rather than wasting a day at home waiting for an appointment for something which can be done at the headend by the right person.. they will tell you its impossible to contact the headend, it is for THEM, but not you if you go through the email address I provided in this thread.

And of course lets hope you dont need it, and your install goes smoohly.


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## wallace (Jun 19, 2002)

rsnaider said:


> Complete Guided Setup once the box arrives





DaveWhittle said:


> Also ask for them to bring as many M Cablecards as they can get their hands on. If you are having difficulties with the first card, switch to another card and you might have different results.


Ditto! I just went through an install process yesterday with my Premiere and both these suggestions were key to it working in a timely manner. Make sure you have done the guided setup and had it up and running well in advance of the appointment, otherwise you and the installer will be waiting forever. Also, thanks to someone else mentioning to request multiple M cards be brought, mine was a success story. The first card just would not work, and thankfully when he put the second one in it all came up instantly without issue.


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## quercus (Nov 29, 2007)

wallace said:


> Ditto! I just went through an install process yesterday with my Premiere and both these suggestions were key to it working in a timely manner. Make sure you have done the guided setup and had it up and running well in advance of the appointment, otherwise you and the installer will be waiting forever. Also, thanks to someone else mentioning to request multiple M cards be brought, mine was a success story. The first card just would not work, and thankfully when he put the second one in it all came up instantly without issue.


How much of the setup can I do in advance? I'm still running SD and have an old Series 2 single tuner TiVO. How far can I get in the conversion process with that set up?

I will call and request the Comcast employee and multiple cards. We'll see how that goes. I live in a remote, rural area. This could work for me or against me.

Also, Comcast is charging me $16 to come out and do whatever they are supposed to do. Is this typical?

Thanks again for all your help.


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## DaveWhittle (Jul 25, 2002)

quercus said:


> Also, Comcast is charging me $16 to come out and do whatever they are supposed to do. Is this typical?


I think the truck roll for me was $20. And my cable package includes a DVR (that I don't use), so for the TiVo they charge $7/month for an "extra outlet" and an additional $1.50/month for the cablecard.


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## bspz4tivo (Jul 22, 2004)

Guess I got super lucky as I had an out-of-town contractor that had never done a TiVo M card install and was successful the first time!

It was $20 for me as well.

Now the bad news:
When I scheduled the card install, someone at the office put it on the wrong line(?) of my account and killed my HSI. Got up the next morning to a Comcast activation page on my computer. Then the tech that fixed that issue must have changed my HSI from Performance level to Economy - didn't find that out until I got my next statement...oh well, back to the phones for me.


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## jsmeeker (Apr 2, 2001)

rsnaider said:


> Complete Guided Setup once the box arrives and make sure they know you need an M card.
> 
> For the rest, pray as the results posted here seem very mixed.


Then, hope they bring an atual M card when they show up.


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## quercus (Nov 29, 2007)

The Premiere box just arrived. My install is scheduled in two days. I will do what I can to set it up before then and will report how it all goes.


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## turbobozz (Sep 21, 2006)

quercus said:


> The Premiere box just arrived. My install is scheduled in two days. I will do what I can to set it up before then and will report how it all goes.


Do guided setup w/ cablecard, but tell the TiVo you will install the cablecard later.


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## MikeAndrews (Jan 17, 2002)

Call your family doctor to phone in a Xanax prescription. You'll need it.


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## quercus (Nov 29, 2007)

turbobozz said:


> Do guided setup w/ cablecard, but tell the TiVo you will install the cablecard later.


Done...



netringer said:


> Call your family doctor to phone in a Xanax prescription. You'll need it.


And done.

Installation went smothly (of the Xanax).


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## davidg001 (Jul 27, 2010)

4 Truck rolls (First two contractors, second two comcast techs), 5 Cable Cards, several emails to corporate customer service later and my Premiere box now works with Comcast.


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## MikeAndrews (Jan 17, 2002)

I posted that the buddy I talked into getting a Premiere was told by Comcast that they didn't have an M CableCARD in stock anywhere in town. 

The "town?" Atlanta. 

It took 6 weeks until he got his installed.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

I found comcast in Delray Beach wouldn't let me install the cable card myself, had to pay $24 for a service call to have the cable guy perform the complex task of sticking the card in the slot.

Probably just as well though because he then had to solve a dozen or so problems with the central office over the phone, starting with the office not believing the serial number of the card he just got from them was valid, and going through not getting the card authorized for the same set of channels I was getting on the scientific atlanta box I was replacing.

The service guy valiantly soldiered through all the obstacles and finally got me up and running before he left.

After many hours, I finally got all the channels setup the way I like them (the biggest pain was correlating all the SD and HD channels and removing the SD channels that had duplicate HD versions - I sure wish I could sort the channel list by call letters so the dups would be adjacent).


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## quercus (Nov 29, 2007)

Sorry for the delay in this post. I told you all that I'd post a report on how the installation of my new Premiere box with Comcast went. Here it is.

I'm giving a lot of detail in case this might be helpful for someone else in the future.

1. I ordered the TiVo box with Lifetime service. Since I had Lifetime service on my previous box, I was eligible for a discount on the new box and on the new Lifetime service. Price for box: $299. Price to service: $199. Plus tax. Free ground shipping. I tried to order using the on-screen system on my existing TiVo but it was broken so I called on the phone and placed the order that way. Went smoothly and package arrived by UPS ground in about 5 days.

2. First glitch I encountered was trying to clear and delete the contents on old Series 2 in preparation for selling it. The screen message said it would take "up to an hour." It actually took about three hours and then it didn't really clear everything, as I expected. I still had to manually delete all the saved programs and delete all the season passes. 

3. Once I got the old Tivo out of the way, it was time to set up the new box. The TiVo Premiere was well packed and the box itself seems sturdier than my old Series 2. The case is a little more elegant without the big white block in the font. It's an all-metal case. The hardware set up was extremely easy. HDMI to the TV, Ethernet to my existing Wireless G adapter, AV cables to my Stereo receiver and Power cord connected. I was glad to see they got rid of the stupid external IR device. Maybe they got rid of that a while ago. As I mentioned, I was going from a Series 2.

4. The guided set up was fairly intuitive. I did everything I could in preparation for the Comcast guy to come.

5. The Comcast guy showed up and was extremely confident that he could do everything, saying he had done it hundreds of times. He ran the service update that I had just run the day before. It took about an hour. He put the CABLEcard in. But ... it didn't work. It only received basic channels, nothing else. The Comcast guy started to sweat. After a bunch of fiddling around he said, "Maybe it only takes a one-way and I put a two-way card in." He decided to call the office (?) and sure enough that was the problem. He fixed it and everything worked.

The TiVo Premiere Service has pretty much worked like a charm ever since except for one lockup the first week that required me to unplug it and reboot.


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## SNJpage1 (May 25, 2006)

When I bought my Tivo HD I was thinking about all the problems every one had been having with Comcast. The tech arrived and told me that he had never set up a Tivo before but his boss said for him to call him and he would walk him thru it. Turns out the boss didnt have the time because of a meeting and sent another tech who could set up Tivo's. The first guy was diappointed because he had been wanting to learn how to do it. Second tech was there in about 15 minutes. They traded jobs and off went the first tech. Second tech had brought about ten cable cards with him, so I was impressed when I saw him set them on the floor. He said dont get your hopes up some are bad. Well I guess it was my lucky day because the first single card worked without a hitch and then the 2nd one did the same. I guess altogether from the time the first tech arrived til the second was leaving was 60 minutes. So far I have only had to call Comcast once about a problem when the cards some how became unpaired. But the person I talked with put me right thru to the person who did the pairing of the cards and after reading the numbers of the cards which I had written down so that I didnt have to go into the menu she was able to have everything back up and running in about 5 minutes. I guess I've been lucky twice now.


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## timstack8969 (May 14, 2004)

I have the TIVO Premiere with Comcast with Garden State, NJ. So far for about 5 months no problems with cable card. I do notice that when I come home from work everyday the TV is not on "LIVE TV" about 20 minutes behind for some reason. Now when the comcast guy came to install the SA/Cable Card I pretty much went thru the set for him and then was charged $17.00 for installation. The guy didn't even know where the cable card went-he was looking at the front of the TIVO box.


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## Dodge DeBoulet (Aug 3, 2010)

In my case, the two visits from Comcast involved absolutely no interaction with the Premiere on the technician's part, other than inserting the card. All activity was at the head-end, with him on the phone with them (and me occasionally bringing up the CableCard info screens). All problems encountered were purely provisioning/entitlement related, getting the right features enabled on my Comcast account for the right kind of "hit" to the card.

I was previously with SusCom (Susquehanna Communications) before Comcast acquired them, and apparently they still haven't fully integrated with the Comcast infrastructure. Because of this it's apparently difficult to get foreign devices (i.e. anything with a CableCard) enabled through the usual Comcast facilities.


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## Bill McNeal (May 31, 2002)

I've heard some people say Comcast let them install the M-card themselves. I'd rather do this than schedule a $20 (or more) truck roll. Any tips on getting Comcast to allow self-install?


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

Bill McNeal said:


> I've heard some people say Comcast let them install the M-card themselves. I'd rather do this than schedule a $20 (or more) truck roll. Any tips on getting Comcast to allow self-install?


It seems to be a local office policy. You either can or you can't depending on where you are. The only way to tell is to ask the local office.


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## kaydigi (Aug 23, 2006)

Bill McNeal said:


> I've heard some people say Comcast let them install the M-card themselves. I'd rather do this than schedule a $20 (or more) truck roll. Any tips on getting Comcast to allow self-install?


Just bought a Premiere and signed up for service via Comcast last Thursday. I asked for a M Card on install, knowing that my Tivo wont be here on the following Tuesday.

The comcast guy showed and did a great job. I played dumb and said my Tivo is suppose to be here today and asked if he could leave the card (local policy is no cable call self install).

He left the card with no problem up. I set the guide up on the tivo and installed the cad myself, it did a firmware update. Whats funny is I called Comcast main number and they sent me to my local office. When I asked the local person about pairing a cable card, you could hear the panic and I was transferred to Boston.

5 minutes later (not counting hold time) all my channels are on. Too bad BravoHD, lifetimeHD etc are not available in my area yet (6 months and counting).

The only thing I'm disappointed about is you can not create folders on the TIVO.


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## peach9867 (Jun 7, 2008)

I too read about all the issues people had with installs. I also had a question of whether or not I would need tuning adapaters (turns out no). I couldn't get an answer from Comcast when I called, so I reached out to comcast cares with my question. They responded to my e-mail promptly and said they would check with the techs. Instead of an e-mail response, they called me personally. I also reiterated with this person that I had to have multi-stream cards and was concerned they would show up with single stream.

I ended up with a Comcast installer (no contractor). He didn't seem pleased about having to deal with Cablecards. But I had already ran setups on both boxes so we were ready to go.

I have to say, this was the best Comcast experience I had ever had (had cable years ago; have had internet access with them for many years). This guy was good and nice to deal with. He told me that a successful cable card install is all dependent on the person at the head end (office). All the work is really on their side. If they don't know what they are doing, it doesn't work. I lucked out - he told me the guy at the office was really good and experienced with cable cards. Everything worked on the first try. It did take about 1/2 hour though for all of the channel access to come down.

I've been up and running (and holding my breath) for two months now. Haven't had a single issue.


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## Mike Wolf (Sep 19, 2010)

With me, I'm actually transferring a cablecard to the tivo from another device. In my experience it usually required a truck to be rolled out. Comcast told me that I can just take the card from the one device and put it into the new device, and it should pair up automatically, and if not, I can call for a pairing signal to be sent. I called up ahead of time and told Comcast I want a standing order for a truck to roll out, in case the hot swap didn't work. We'll see how it goes later this week.


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## Mike Wolf (Sep 19, 2010)

Alright, did the transfer of the cablecard and wow it was easy. All I did was take the card out of the back of the old DVR device, pop it into the back of the Premiere, the card said I needed to contact the cable company, so as I was dialing, another messaged popped up and said it was authorized. Then I finished setting up and off I went. Didn't even need to contact Comcast.


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## Mike Wolf (Sep 19, 2010)

tomhorsley said:


> It seems to be a local office policy. You either can or you can't depending on where you are. The only way to tell is to ask the local office.


Actually theres been some confusion within Comcast itself about this. Although you can recieve authorization to pick up the card from the local office when talking to Comcast on the phone, or via chat, when you actually go in to pick it up, they refuse, claiming its agaist company policy.


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## Shagger (Nov 2, 2007)

Comcast tells me that I am to get a T3 card? This not what you are all saying...


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## Mike Wolf (Sep 19, 2010)

Shagger said:


> Comcast tells me that I am to get a T3 card? This not what you are all saying...


Never heard of a T3 card. Multistream cards, aka M cards are able to stream up to six streams at one time, aka 6 channels at a time. The limitation is the tuner, which can handle only 1 at a time.


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