# 6 Tuner M-Card



## pkb (Sep 2, 2013)

Does anyone know how to acquire a 6-Tuner M-Card? My cable provider (Cox Cable of Hampton Roads) only has M-Cards that provide 2 tuners.  After talking with TIVO support, who determined that my M-Card did not have the proper upgraded firmware. I have been to two of their 'solution' cards and even waited an hour to get to talk to the techie M-Card dude at Cox. They are clueless about any M-Card in excess of 2 tuners (however, they have a new Cox-labeled DVR that does 6 tuners...). So I am looking for another M-Card provider. Can anyone help?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

They are required by law to support at least 4 tuners. They're only required to support 6 tuners if they offer a 6 tuner DVR of their own.

Unfortunately you can't just buy an M-Card. You have to get one from your cable company. If they can't give you one then all you can do is complaint to the FCC and the local franchise authority.


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## pkb (Sep 2, 2013)

OK-- how do I contact the FCC?


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

fcc.gov/complaints

There is a specific section for CableCARDs.


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## pkb (Sep 2, 2013)

Thanks. I will post here on how it goes. Give me a few days....


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

Cox is very uniform from market to market, and Hampton Roads is a Motorola market, and Cox does provide Motorola M-Cards capable of supporting 6 tuners.

Just ask moyekj, he lives in a Cox Motorola market and has a 6 Tuner Roamio Plus, ask him what his CableCARD is, and the Firmware Version.

Here is what moyekj reported as his Firmware:


moyekj said:


> Status page for me shows FW* 6.25 and there are no numbers for "FW".


I will reach out to a few contacts in VA and see what I can come up with.


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## sheisler28 (Mar 7, 2008)

I am in the Omaha area and I am having the same issue. I received my Roamio on Thursday but the 3 Cable Cards that my Cox Cable provider has provided me have not worked. They claim all they have are 2 tuner cards. They are sending a technician to my house on Monday. They do offer a 6 tuner DVR (Contour) to our area though so not sure how they can claim they only offer a 2 tuner cable card if that law is accurate? I HATE Cox Communications!


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

This was posted by Margret regarding Verizon FiOS Motorola CableCARDs not sure if it applys to Cox Motorola, but worth looking into.



TiVoMargret said:


> Take the FiOS CableCARD out of the Roamio, and look at the part number on the back, above the bar code.
> 
> If that number is either one of these:
> 514517-002-00 (MCPOD1)
> ...


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## sheisler28 (Mar 7, 2008)

We had the Cox technician come out tonight after 3 failed card attempts. He was here for 2.5 hours. Signal to line is strong so no issue there. He tried 2 of the 017 cable cards and no go with either! His theory is that COX does not have a system upgrade on its cards that Tivo needed to provide when they switched to the 6 tuner models. He basically left and said we were out of luck. Nothing more they can do for us. 

Is anyone having luck with Cox and the 6 tuner models?


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## mdscott (Jun 26, 2002)

sheisler28 said:


> We had the Cox technician come out tonight after 3 failed card attempts. He was here for 2.5 hours. Signal to line is strong so no issue there. He tried 2 of the 017 cable cards and no go with either! His theory is that COX does not have a system upgrade on its cards that Tivo needed to provide when they switched to the 6 tuner models. He basically left and said we were out of luck. Nothing more they can do for us.


Pass this information to Margret Schmidt, TiVo's chief Design Officer, "@tivodesign" (twitter) or "[email protected]"

It is important to her in getting cable co's educated. {mat be able tyo help you as well)

michael


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## mxfanatic (Jan 20, 2007)

6 tuners and TA working fine on COX San Diego for my brother.


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## aristoBrat (Dec 30, 2002)

pkb said:


> Does anyone know how to acquire a 6-Tuner M-Card? My cable provider (Cox Cable of Hampton Roads) only has M-Cards that provide 2 tuners.


Hey, I'm in Virginia Beach (Kempsville area), and I've been using a 4-tuner TiVo Premiere XL 4 since March with no problems.

I had a Roamio Pro for three nights (before it died), and there were a few times where 5 and 6 channels were being used at the same time.

The problem I had with the Roamio Pro was being unable to pair the cable card. This meant it was unable to tune HBO/Showtime, but everything else worked OK. I had an appointment scheduled for them to come look, but the Roamio Pro died earlier that day, so I cancelled.

I'm back to using my 4-tuner XL 4, which uses 4 tuners almost every night. My replacement Roamio will be here on Wednesday night, so we'll see how that goes again.

Unless you have Verizon FIOS in your area, there's really no other provider of cable cards.


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## aristoBrat (Dec 30, 2002)

I just checked my Cable Card, and its Part Number is 514517-017-00, which is listed as the one that should work.

Under the status screen, it also shows:
FW* 06.25- -/-/- -:-:-
FW -.- - -/-/- -:-:-


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

aristoBrat said:


> I just checked my Cable Card, and its Part Number is 514517-017-00, which is listed as the one that should work.
> 
> Under the status screen, it also shows:
> FW* 06.25- -/-/- -:-:-
> FW -.- - -/-/- -:-:-


That is a card and firmware confirmed to work.


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## Loach (Jan 11, 2013)

sheisler28 said:


> I am in the Omaha area and I am having the same issue. I received my Roamio on Thursday but the 3 Cable Cards that my Cox Cable provider has provided me have not worked. They claim all they have are 2 tuner cards. They are sending a technician to my house on Monday. They do offer a 6 tuner DVR (Contour) to our area though so not sure how they can claim they only offer a 2 tuner cable card if that law is accurate? I HATE Cox Communications!


Well that's BS. I have Cox in Omaha and all 4 tuners of my Premiere 4 have been working fine since I bought it in January. So their cable cards support at least 4 tuners.


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## aristoBrat (Dec 30, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> That is a card and firmware confirmed to work.


Ha, that's my luck. Have the right cable card from the start, but then my Roamio Pro dies. heh

Got the replacement Roamio like an hour ago, will see if Cox has any more luck pairing them.


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## severe (Dec 12, 2009)

Incidentally, my Roamio Plus has been pulling 5 tuners from a Scientific Atlanta PKM800 card. I'd initially had 4 tuners working, but after a reboot got the 5th working.

Not too much of an issue, considering I'd gotten used to 2 tuners for years. However, anyone have a suggestion on getting the 6th tuner working?


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

severe said:


> Incidentally, my Roamio Plus has been pulling 5 tuners from a Scientific Atlanta PKM800 card. I'd initially had 4 tuners working, but after a reboot got the 5th working.
> 
> Not too much of an issue, considering I'd gotten used to 2 tuners for years. However, anyone have a suggestion on getting the 6th tuner working?


You probably need to read the other threads about problems with some Cable Cards not tuning more than 4 (or in your case 5) streams.

This could be a known issue or you could have hit a known one.

If it's not a "known" problem then you will probably have to hit TiVo support up with it and find out if you need to swap your CC for a model/FW known to work.


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## severe (Dec 12, 2009)

jmpage2 said:


> If it's not a "known" problem...


Thanks.


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## aristoBrat (Dec 30, 2002)

aristoBrat said:


> I just checked my Cable Card, and its Part Number is 514517-017-00, which is listed as the one that should work.
> 
> Under the status screen, it also shows:
> FW* 06.25- -/-/- -:-:-
> FW -.- - -/-/- -:-:-


Just in case this helps anyone else, ... Cox was repeatedly unable to pair the above cable card in my Roamio. Was on the phone with them for about an hour. The exact same card works perfectly fine in the Premiere XL 4 that the Roamio is replacing.

Talking with TiVo, it turns out the cable signal was too strong for the Roamio. The Premiere had no problem with it.

In Settings & Messages > Account & System Info > DVR Diagnostics, the Roamio showed Signal Strengths of all 100 and SNRs of all 44 dB. TiVo said the SNR should be between 34 and 38 dB. I unscrewed the coax going into the back of the Roami, attached an old 4-way splitter that I had, and then another short coax cable from that splitter to the Pro.

Adding the splitter dropped the Signal Strengths down to 85-95 and the SNRs down to 33-38 dB. Cox then re-sent the pairing signal, and it went through. w00t!


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

Interesting, these Roamio Pros seem to have a substantial signal amp built-in that changes the norms we are expecting to see.


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## WRX09MD (Aug 25, 2013)

aristoBrat said:


> Just in case this helps anyone else, ... Cox was repeatedly unable to pair the above cable card in my Roamio. Was on the phone with them for about an hour. The exact same card works perfectly fine in the Premiere XL 4 that the Roamio is replacing.
> 
> Talking with TiVo, it turns out the cable signal was too strong for the Roamio. The Premiere had no problem with it.
> 
> ...


Is it bad to have your signal reading 100 and SNR 42 all of the time? Should I drop it some if Im not having any issues with anything?


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## DaveDFW (Jan 25, 2005)

WRX09MD said:


> Is it bad to have your signal reading 100 and SNR 42 all of the time? Should I drop it some if Im not having any issues with anything?


I reported similar numbers on my Plus a while ago:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=508206

I don't appear to be experiencing any difficulties with these signal levels, it's just a little disconcerting to see 100 on every channel when that's never been the case in the past.

The signal level reported on the cablecard itself is lower than that displayed for the channels. In my case, the cablecard reports around 36db.


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## Smirks (Oct 7, 2002)

The signal levels on my Plus are consistently 100 with a SNR between 42 and 44 across all 5 working tuners. Wondering if I should try to get that lower and also wondering if that'll solve the audio problems I'm having on the one channel.


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## joehler (Sep 12, 2013)

sheisler28 - I am in the Omaha area and own a TiVo Roamio Pro. I have had success getting the cable card to work and tune non-SDV channels, but our tuning adapter will not fully initialize. It continues to blink yellow forever. Is your experience similar? 

For anyone using the MTR700 tuning adapter, what version of software is your tuning adapter running? I have a suspicion that my adapter, which is running 1.33 only supports 4 tuners. I'm not sure if I will have any luck getting the cable company to upgrade the firmware in the adapter. Since they offer a 6 tuner DVR here, they should, but...

I wonder if there is a way to disable two of the tuners on the Roamio (even though that kills me) in order to get reliable behavior. I will follow up with both Cox and TiVo concerning this.


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## RustySTL (Feb 27, 2007)

I've only been getting two tuners working. After several attempts with Charter, I finally talked to someone at Tivo that told me there is a known issue with some TA's. The MTR700 is what I have and if I completely bypass it, I get all 6 tuners working. Tivo says they're working on fixing the issue.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

RustySTL said:


> I've only been getting two tuners working. After several attempts with Charter, I finally talked to someone at Tivo that told me there is a known issue with some TA's. The MTR700 is what I have and if I completely bypass it, I get all 6 tuners working. Tivo says they're working on fixing the issue.


 Must be firmware related then because I'm using an MTR700 without issue for all 6 tuners (I've confirmed I can record 6 SDV channels at once).


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## MeInDallas (Jul 31, 2011)

RustySTL said:


> I've only been getting two tuners working. After several attempts with Charter, I finally talked to someone at Tivo that told me there is a known issue with some TA's. The MTR700 is what I have and if I completely bypass it, I get all 6 tuners working. Tivo says they're working on fixing the issue.


Look and see what firmware you have. I have the MTR700 and you need platform version 01.37 to get 6 tuners.

Go to settings/account & system information/tuning adapter/tuning adapter diagnostics/ and then when it goes into that gray screen, go down to code modules and hit select, see what the platform version is there. It should be at least 01.37 for 6 tuners to work.


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## NJguy (Sep 11, 2013)

Dan203 said:


> They are required by law to support at least 4 tuners. They're only required to support 6 tuners if they offer a 6 tuner DVR of their own.


Did not know that. So Cablevision started the "Whole Home" service back around the end of July. It allows you to record 10 shows at once and watch on any box. So, that said, they should have updated their cablecard to allow 6 tuners instead of 4. Two months after they did that.....still no go on that.

Cool to know though and I have confidence it will be fixed soon, especially if people file those complaints to get the software engineers on this and as a top priority. Will be great when it's working 100%.


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## celtic pride (Nov 8, 2005)

It seems to me that tivo should of let all the cable companies know that they were coming out with a 6 tuner tivo dvr so that that the cable companies would of been ready to support the 6 tuners from the start.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

celtic pride said:


> It seems to me that tivo should of let all the cable companies know that they were coming out with a 6 tuner tivo dvr so that that the cable companies would of been ready to support the 6 tuners from the start.


You are assuming that they sprung this on then like a surprise. That is rather unlikely.


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## CrispyCritter (Feb 28, 2001)

celtic pride said:


> It seems to me that tivo should of let all the cable companies know that they were coming out with a 6 tuner tivo dvr so that that the cable companies would of been ready to support the 6 tuners from the start.


I'm sure all the cable companies were told long ago - most of them even have legal requirements to support 6 tuners, and legal issues always get attention. But until the device gets out there, the individual cable franchises don't have any idea whether their equipment works with it, or what changes need to be made. Most of what we're talking about here are bugs in cablecard firmware, not intentional design issues.


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## kbmb (Jun 22, 2004)

celtic pride said:


> It seems to me that tivo should of let all the cable companies know that they were coming out with a 6 tuner tivo dvr so that that the cable companies would of been ready to support the 6 tuners from the start.


Let's be honest....that LAST thing any Cable Co wants to do is deal with Cablecards. Most don't even know what they are....and it's the sales reps jobs to push their own DVRs from 1997!

-Kevin


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## kemajor (Jan 2, 2003)

I have Cox in Wichita KS. I also have a Roamio Pro. I kept getting an on screen message that the tuning adapter did not support 6 tuners. Sure enough I couldn't get 6 tuners working. Called Cox and worked with a pretty knowledgable guy. He knew all about Tivos, Cable cards, tuning adapters, etc. eventually we just removed the tuning adapter (MTR700) and then all 6 tuners worked. I checked the Cox lineup and there was no chance whatsoever I would ever record or even view any channels that required the tuning adapter. Since then I've just run without it.

At the time I was going through the various CableCard and TA screens and I noticed the firmware date on the TA was very old which is why we decided to try taking it out of the loop. I asked him to open some kind of engineering ticket about the issue so that hopefully at some point Cox would push updated TA firmware.

After reading this thread it mentioned specifically which TA firmware version is required (or at least works) I wish I have written down the version on mine. It's a real PITA to get it hooked back up.

Anyway, just thought I would share my experience so far.

- Kelly


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## kemajor (Jan 2, 2003)

I just remembered that I took a phone photo of the TA diagnostics screens at the time. The tuning adapters here are running

PLATFORM VERSION 01.33
PLATFORM BUILT: Aug 11, 2009 14:41:47

So at least I know for a fact it was the TA at the time. 

- Kelly


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## joehler (Sep 12, 2013)

I'm on Cox in Omaha and have also been having issues with the number of tuners supported by my MTR700 tuning adapter. It is currently loaded with version 1.33, as noted by kemajor above. I've been working with Cox to locate and push version 1.37 (which I believe is the version I need to support 6 tuners), to my adapter. For now, I've limited my Roamio to only use 4 tuners. I'll post if I have any luck getting the updated firmware and support for all 6 tuners. 

Jaymie


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## joehler (Sep 12, 2013)

For anyone struggling with support for 6 tuners in Omaha with Cox as your provider, I have FINALLY gotten Cox to acknowledge the problem and comprehend how to fix it. If you have a Cox supplied MTR700 tuning adapter which is running firmware version 01.33, that software only supports 4 tuners. They now understand that they need to push firmware version 01.37 (which supports 6 tuners) to the tuning adapter. They have at least three customers in the area with this problem. They have a tuning adapter in the head end that is running this version of firmware and are experimenting in the lab with the upgrade. I will let you know if and when my tuning adapter is successfully upgraded.


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## joehler (Sep 12, 2013)

One last follow up. Version 01.37 of the MTR700 tuning adapter firmware has been pushed to my device. I'm in Omaha with Cox Communications. If anyone else is having issues and their firmware has not been updated, you should be able to call now and have them hit your box with the version.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

Did that FW version resolve your issues? I would imagine that would be the top concern people want to see addressed.


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## joehler (Sep 12, 2013)

I'm sorry I wasn't clear jmpage2. I believe the upgrade has resolved my issues. I have re-enabled all 6 tuners on my TiVo and it is working well. I have verified the following

1. No more complaints from the TiVo about having a tuning adapter which supported less than six tuners
2. I can record 6 SDV shows at once

The other issue I was seeing was that sometimes, when I tried to tune to a SDV channel, I would get a black screen (V.58) with a complaint that the TiVo was unable to tune to the channel and to contact my cable provider. I was usually able to 'fix' the problem by pressing the TiVo button and then the zoom button. However, since the update, I have not encountered this issue. I can't claim 100% certainty that it is fixed, but anecdotally, the issue appears to be solved.


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## hanlan (Sep 26, 2013)

NJguy said:


> Did not know that. So Cablevision started the "Whole Home" service back around the end of July. It allows you to record 10 shows at once and watch on any box. So, that said, they should have updated their cablecard to allow 6 tuners instead of 4. Two months after they did that.....still no go on that.
> 
> From what i Understand, the whole home 10 at once dvr is cloud based


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## kemajor (Jan 2, 2003)

UPDATE: Cox Wichita has finally pushed v1.37 to their tuning adapters so we are good to go with 6 tuner support.

- Kelly


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## headless chicken (Oct 8, 2004)

Do all M-cards on Fios support 4+ tuners? How does one check if they don't own a 4 tuner Tivo yet...the S/N?


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## gwilliams99 (Dec 7, 2013)

RustySTL said:


> I've only been getting two tuners working. After several attempts with Charter, I finally talked to someone at Tivo that told me there is a known issue with some TA's. The MTR700 is what I have and if I completely bypass it, I get all 6 tuners working. Tivo says they're working on fixing the issue.


 feel for anyone have to deal with cable card problems. I had a Premier 4 XL on Charter cable in the Birmingham AL area. I never was able to get it to work reliably in the year that I had Charter/Tivo service.

Charter always said that they had problems with 4 stream cards. My main issues were getting it to work in the initial install. The cable guy spent several days trying to get it to pair. When he finally got it to work they managed to send it an update either to the switched digital box or the card monthly to hose it all up again.

I also had the problem of tuning to a station and having the blank/black screen. I have since learned this is a common issue with the Premier 4 XL.

I finally filled a formal complaint through the FCC. This really got Charter's attention, however despite their best efforts, the tuning to a blank screen persisted.

I finally canceled my Charter cable service and my Tivo service. 
I have now bought a Roamio Basic that I use for over the air broadcast, I'm really pleased with it so far.

I hope someone can take my experiences with cable cards on Charter as a cautionary tale, and only go down that road if there is really no alternative.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

By contrast I've been using CableCARDs with Charter in my area since the original S3 was released in 2006 and never had much of an issue. I've had a few issues getting them paired over the years, but it was always eventually resolved. And recently I've upgraded from 2 tuner, to 4 tuner, then to 6 tuner and the cards always worked properly the first time. The issues I've had have always been with getting them paired the first time. Once they're paired and working upgrading equipment hasn't been an issue.


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## DonCarver (Feb 4, 2015)

Dan203 said:


> By contrast I've been using CableCARDs with Charter in my area since the original S3 was released in 2006 and never had much of an issue. I've had a few issues getting them paired over the years, but it was always eventually resolved. And recently I've upgraded from 2 tuner, to 4 tuner, then to 6 tuner and the cards always worked properly the first time. The issues I've had have always been with getting them paired the first time. Once they're paired and working upgrading equipment hasn't been an issue.


I've talked with Charter support 3 times (but one of those times I supposedly got cut-off accidentally). They insist that they only support 4 tuners; one lady even insisted that my box didn't really support 6 tuners or there would be 2 CC slots on the back(!!!). The last time I even told them of the CC FW requirements posted on TiVo.com and that my Moto CC was at 3.31, but the guy talked with his supervisor and said they don't support 6.25.

Is there something specific I should say or ask when I call, because I'm getting no where using the facts, and all this even after the Roamios have been on the market for over a year....


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

DonCarver said:


> I've talked with Charter support 3 times (but one of those times I supposedly got cut-off accidentally). They insist that they only support 4 tuners; one lady even insisted that my box didn't really support 6 tuners or there would be 2 CC slots on the back(!!!). The last time I even told them of the CC FW requirements posted on TiVo.com and that my Moto CC was at 3.31, but the guy talked with his supervisor and said they don't support 6.25.
> 
> Is there something specific I should say or ask when I call, because I'm getting no where using the facts, and all this even after the Roamios have been on the market for over a year....


You should file a formal complaint with the FCC. That's the only thing that seems to get the ball rolling in these types of situations.

https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

tarheelblue32 said:


> You should file a formal complaint with the FCC. That's the only thing that seems to get the ball rolling in these types of situations.
> 
> https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us


It may not do any good. Unless thay have changed, the regulations only require that they support max(4-tuners, whatever their "best" device supports).


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

lpwcomp said:


> It may not do any good. Unless thay have changed, the regulations only require that they support max(4-tuners, whatever their "best" device supports).


I'd still file the complaint regardless. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.


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