# Cablecard won't accept new channel



## CharlieC (Nov 23, 2006)

I have 3 Premieres and 1 HD and all have the same problem. About 2 weeks ago Cox added HD channel 1063. The programming information shows up in the guide but when attempting to tune to that channel, TIVO responds with the message "CHANNEL NOT AVAILABLE". I have a TV with just a cable box and it comes thru fine. I spoke with TIVO support who had me tune to the channel and see what the cable card authorization code is. He stated it appears to state the channel is authorized to be received by the cable card. He suggested it then is not a TIVO issue but a cablecard issue and suggested that I have Cox re-pair the cablecards. I called Cox and they attempted to re-pair all the cablecards but the procedure had no affect - still no channel 1063. The Cox tech indicated though that she could not get the cablecards to "reboot" and suggested removing the cablecards then putting them back in - something the TIVO tech had me do. When that didn't work she suggested a truck roll. I'm reluctant to resort to that since most of Cox's techs have no idea what to do with a TIVO and I end up being on the phone with their head end doing all the diagnostics.

Anyone have any idea what could be going wrong?


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

The issue is most likely they have not authorized the new channel on any of their cablecards. I doubt it is a issue specific to your cablecard. The channel obviously exists in the cablecard mapping or you would get a channel not available message.


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## CharlieC (Nov 23, 2006)

It appears though from looking at the cablecard diagnostics that the channel IS authorized, but I am still receiving a CHANNEL NOT AVAILABLE message.


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## DonaldBurns65144 (Jan 11, 2011)

How about doing a restart? Also, is the channel selected in the setup list of channels you receive?


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## CharlieC (Nov 23, 2006)

Yes, restarted. Even pulled the cable card upon restart and had TIVO ask for it to be reinserted. The channel and program listings shows up in the guide. Both TIVO and Cox are puzzled why #1 TIVO can't tune in the channel and #2 why the cablecards won't "reboot" upon re-pairing. They say it's almost impossible that all 4 cablecards went bad at the same time and that they continue to pull in other channels.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

What Cox market (City) are you in?
Is it just that one channel?

Edit: Found your location in another post Cleveland, Channel 1063 - truTV HD.

I don't believe Cox Cleveland has started deploying SDV yet, but if they have that channel would be one using SDV and a Tuning Adapter. It is worth asking Cox if a Tuning Adapter is needed.


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## CharlieC (Nov 23, 2006)

Yes, I'm in Cox's Cleveland market and the channel is 1063 - TruTV HD. It's the only channel I've ever had this problem with. Cox add's channels every once in a while and although the notice from TIVO and the guide information usually preceeds the actual deployment by a couple of days, eventually the channel shows up. As I mentioned eariler, I've got another TV connected solely to a cable box and 1063 has worked fine for over a week.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

CharlieC said:


> It appears though from looking at the cablecard diagnostics that the channel IS authorized, but I am still receiving a CHANNEL NOT AVAILABLE message.


Channel not available would mean Cox has not sent the correct channel mapping to their cablecards. This would have to be fixed at the headend.


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## CharlieC (Nov 23, 2006)

My understanding is that's what they were trying to correct by re-pairing and then by "rebooting" but they cannot get the cards to "reboot" even by pulling the cards out of the TIVO and then pushing them back in. Any suggestion on how to fix that? (on all 4 cablecards)


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

CharlieC said:


> My understanding is that's what they were trying to correct by re-pairing and then by "rebooting" but they cannot get the cards to "reboot" even by pulling the cards out of the TIVO and then pushing them back in. Any suggestion on how to fix that? (on all 4 cablecards)


I didnt think the cards could re-boot.... Almost sounds like you were speaking with someone who didnt know what they were talking about. Tuning Adaptors can re-boot


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

CharlieC said:


> My understanding is that's what they were trying to correct by re-pairing and then by "rebooting" but they cannot get the cards to "reboot" even by pulling the cards out of the TIVO and then pushing them back in. Any suggestion on how to fix that? (on all 4 cablecards)


If you reboot the TiVo it will refresh the channel mapping from the cablecards. If it is still wrong then they have not mapped that channel to any cablecards on that head end. There's no way they can do anything to the card to fix it.


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## miadlor (Sep 4, 2003)

CharlieC......I sent you a private message the other day.


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## spudzola (Mar 1, 2003)

Been trying for a month now with Cox in Phoenix to authorize my Premiere to receive the "Plus" channels such as HBO and Showtime (which I subscribe to). They launched HD versions of them on channels 1200 through 1210 for HBO. All I get is 1200 and 1201, the rest give me the "not authorized" message. 

Cox blames TiVo and TiVo blames Cox. Another satisfied customer!


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## miadlor (Sep 4, 2003)

spudzola

Are you getting...... 1101, 1133, 1134, 1161, and 1900?


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## spudzola (Mar 1, 2003)

Not those either. I think they're all part of the Plus package. Cox says my account has been authorized for the Plus channels, which I confirmed on subsequent calls. 

Wish they'd get their act together.


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## zowwie85 (Jul 25, 2010)

CharlieC said:


> I have 3 Premieres and 1 HD and all have the same problem. About 2 weeks ago Cox added HD channel 1063. The programming information shows up in the guide but when attempting to tune to that channel, TIVO responds with the message "CHANNEL NOT AVAILABLE". I have a TV with just a cable box and it comes thru fine. I spoke with TIVO support who had me tune to the channel and see what the cable card authorization code is. He stated it appears to state the channel is authorized to be received by the cable card. He suggested it then is not a TIVO issue but a cablecard issue and suggested that I have Cox re-pair the cablecards. I called Cox and they attempted to re-pair all the cablecards but the procedure had no affect - still no channel 1063. The Cox tech indicated though that she could not get the cablecards to "reboot" and suggested removing the cablecards then putting them back in - something the TIVO tech had me do. When that didn't work she suggested a truck roll. I'm reluctant to resort to that since most of Cox's techs have no idea what to do with a TIVO and I end up being on the phone with their head end doing all the diagnostics.
> 
> Anyone have any idea what could be going wrong?


When you're looking at that DVR diagnostics screen for the channel (account and system info, DVR diagnostics) - look for Channel 1063 in that screen and then scroll down to the first place below that where you see Video PID. There will be something like 0xXXX (MPEG2) -- or 0xXXX (H.264).

If that line says H.264 you have the same problem as the guy in Phoenix. H.264 encoded video on the current release software for TiVo Premiere will not display.

However, if it says MPEG2... it's not the bug I'm speaking of.


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## zowwie85 (Jul 25, 2010)

spudzola said:


> Not those either. I think they're all part of the Plus package. Cox says my account has been authorized for the Plus channels, which I confirmed on subsequent calls.
> 
> Wish they'd get their act together.


For sure this is the H.264 video bug. It's a TiVo problem actually. Your cable card is likely authorized fine. Cox seems to have made a business decision not to train their CSR's about anything cablecard related -- like anyone would take them seriously anyway when they tell you "it's really a problem with the TiVo." You wouldn't believe them even if they told you the truth. I know I wouldn't.

TiVo's support SHOULD be knowledgeable about this, but apparently TiVo has chosen not to go that route either.

Indications are that TiVo's next release will fix the problem described in Phoenix. You just need to hang tight until TiVo pushes the update.


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## CharlieC (Nov 23, 2006)

It looks like either the Tivo tuner or the cable card can't even tune to that channel. For that channel, the Current Tuning Status line indicates "Not Tuned; Wrong Card State". Not sure what that means.


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## LoREvanescence (Jun 19, 2007)

This is not likely an issue with cable cards or mapping at all. It is a guide data issue.


You can confirm this by trying to turn it from a cox box. It wont exist. This has happened in my market quite a bit, and trutv hd is always one of the channels involved.

Most cox markets if not all don't care true tv hd full time, only for march madness. They always publish the guide data information early, and take a month or two to update the published information that the channel no longer exists. 


So tribune thinks the channel is there, however it is no in the cable stream at all at this time. On Cox's own box, the channel wont show at all as existing.




This also happened with the music choice hd channels. My tivo showed the same thing on them for months, but when posting on AVS people were saying the channels weren't available yet / they can't get them or even see them on their cox boxes. As soon as people reported they were now available (6 months later), they all worked just fine on my peremiere.


Same with trutv, when people posted it's now live for march maddnes, I was able to turn it in no problem, but when it's not live for people with cox boxes, I got the same message you did from my premiere.


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## CharlieC (Nov 23, 2006)

As I indicated in my original post, I have a TV connected to a Cox cable box and 1063 - TRUTV HD DOES come in as expected. It's an issue only on my TIVOs. Guide data on TIVO is same as on the Cox cable box. It must be something with TIVO or the cable card or both.


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## LoREvanescence (Jun 19, 2007)

CharlieC said:


> As I indicated in my original post, I have a TV connected to a Cox cable box and 1063 - TRUTV HD DOES come in as expected. It's an issue only on my TIVOs. Guide data on TIVO is same as on the Cox cable box. It must be something with TIVO or the cable card or both.


Ok, there is one other cause.

Before most of us could not get cook HD, DYI HD, SWRV HD and some other plus package channels, because they were in the 1ghz range and cox made a decision to make them available only to whole home dvr's.

Most markets have now authorized these channels for the cable card stream. Can you turn those channels I mentioned? If you can't this might be the next issue it could possibly be.


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## CharlieC (Nov 23, 2006)

LoREvanescence
I cannot tune to the channels you indicated but they are also not listed as being available on Cox's channel lineup in my market (Cleveland) whereas TruTV HD is listed as being available and I can tune to it via their box.


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## CharlieC (Nov 23, 2006)

I'm not sure who did what but suddenly yesterday I started getting channel 1063 - TruTV HD. I can't tell from the cablecard diagnostics what has changed.


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## aswhitey (Nov 9, 2006)

This absolutely is the problem. I spoke with TiVo today and they are well aware of the problem and do not know when the software update to fix this will be released. They think it will be soon. I've heard that they've been testing the fix for a few months and it's working but they just haven't released the fix to customers.



zowwie85 said:


> For sure this is the H.264 video bug. It's a TiVo problem actually. Your cable card is likely authorized fine. Cox seems to have made a business decision not to train their CSR's about anything cablecard related -- like anyone would take them seriously anyway when they tell you "it's really a problem with the TiVo." You wouldn't believe them even if they told you the truth. I know I wouldn't.
> 
> TiVo's support SHOULD be knowledgeable about this, but apparently TiVo has chosen not to go that route either.
> 
> Indications are that TiVo's next release will fix the problem described in Phoenix. You just need to hang tight until TiVo pushes the update.


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

Just wanted to update some people. There is some Premiere Owners on FIOS reporting the new H.264 channels are coming in fine. This is over on dsl reports


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