# CableONE CableCard Info, Experiences...



## IDSmoker (Apr 11, 2004)

I'm considering making the jump to Series 3 (from my Series 1 w/ lifetime), probably followed shortly by the jump to HD.

According to the CableONE service rep I spoke to, getting CableCards is as simple as taking in one of my 2 current digital cable tuners, and exchanging it for 2 CableCards (and an additional $2.95 a month). I'm not sure if I could get rid of the additional monthly charge by exchanging both tuners, but I plan on keeping one for the bedroom anyway.

Before I start down this long, possibly trouble-filled, and definitely *expensive* road, can anyone chime in with their experiences with CableONE related either to the Series 3, CableCards, or CableONE's high-definition service in general (I've also thought of going the OTA route).

Thanks.


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## IDSmoker (Apr 11, 2004)

Anyone?


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Did you ever make that jump? I just took advantage of the TivoHD lifetime transfer offer. Waiting for the new box to arrive and will be shopping for a new HDTV this weekend. I'm on CableOne in Biloxi, Ms and was curious if you ever got this working.


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## IDSmoker (Apr 11, 2004)

Yes, I did make the move to a Series 3, cable cards from CableOne, and a HD TV.

I am very happy with the upgrade!

There was an issue with the cable cards at first. The first CableOne technician I talked to on the phone didn't know much about them and we didn't get the correct numbers put into their system. When I called back later, I got a more knowledgeable person and got everything straightened out.

The only problem I have now is that I'm finding that occasionally, 2 High-Def tuners aren't enough! <grin>

I tried hooking up an OTA antenna using a splitter to go to both the TV and the S3, so that I would be able to watch the TV while recording 2 shows on the S3, but for some reason, the TV is only picking up 2 digital channels, even though the S3 gets everything available in my area.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Got my Samsung HD TV set up and working with the normal digital cable. Should get my TivoHD today. CableOne is scheduled to come out tomorrow with two S cards. CableOne never asked me what kind of TV I wanted the cards installed in so we'll see how much resistance to a Tivo install I get tomorrow.

Did CableOne charge you one fee for the installation appointment or a fee for each card they installed? They told me that it would be $30 for each card. I asked about an M card but she said they aren't available yet.


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## IDSmoker (Apr 11, 2004)

No, I picked up my cable cards when I dropped off my old receiver (I had 2, so I turned one in to help with the monthly fees).

I convinced them that I knew what I was doing well enough to handle everything over phone, which was true once I got a knowledgeable tech on their end of the line.

After all, the "installation" only amounts to sticking the cards in the device, getting the device to set them up correctly (which with a TiVo, you are going to know more about than they will), and then getting the device to display a bunch of numbers that have to be put into CableOne's system correctly.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Yep, but the techs down here apparently won't trust us to do it. Luckily the tech they did send out had installed CC's in TiVo's before so he had some experience. He ran all the paperwork, I ran the remote and it went pretty smoothly.

First card installed no problem. Second card kept throwing some really obnoxious errors. So he pulled it out and got another one. That 3rd card installed with no problems. Enjoying A&E HD right now and all the appropriate channels seem good on both cards.

High point of the experience: They only charged me the one $30 install fee, not one fee for each card. Apparently their phone people don't have the correct info. *Imagine that!*


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## msu-dawg (Jan 7, 2006)

Glad to hear that Cableone on MS coast is putting cablecards in Tivos. We currently have 2 older series 2 single tuner units and have been debating getting either the Series 3 HD or the newer HD Tivo for a while but have been holding my breath on support for cablecards (even though they list them on their excuse for a website). I think I'm about to buy one either on a holiday sale or from ebay so I did a quick search for "cableone" here and found this thread. Hopefully my experience will go as well as yours. Overall my past experiences with cableone have, on average, been less than pleasant.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Less than pleasant experience with CableOne?? Say it ain't so!! 

I am pretty happy with the whole jump to HD. I've been wanting to do it for well over a year now but couldn't stand the thought of doing without TiVo being in the mix. So after the S3's and TiVo HD's came out I was only waiting for the lifetime transfer offer to hit and that's when I jumped.

Make sure you double check their channel lineup, I hadn't realized at first the the HD Theater (Discovery Channel) is part of an extra package with a $5 fee. But the fix was as simple as a phone call to CableOne and the gal added it while I waited. Their HD content is a little on the thin side right now, but hopefully they'll be expanding.


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## IDSmoker (Apr 11, 2004)

BiloxiGeek said:


> ...
> Make sure you double check their channel lineup, I hadn't realized at first the the *HD Theater (Discovery Channel) is part of an extra package with a $5 fee.* But the fix was as simple as a phone call to CableOne and the gal added it while I waited. Their HD content is a little on the thin side right now, but hopefully they'll be expanding.


When I signed up last December, I thought I had purchased their Hi-Def package.

Imagine my surprise when I found out this package does not include the _unannounced _newest additions to their hi-def line-up!!!

Since the new additions only amount to 5 channels: HD Theater, National Geographic HD, A&E HD East, HGTV HD, and Food HD for an additional $5 a month, I've decided to wait and see if the recent high-definition advertising push by the satellite companies will bring CableOne to it's senses. I'm not going to hold my breath though!


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## msu-dawg (Jan 7, 2006)

Yeah, we've had a nice HD plasma for a year now but the lack of HD channels on cableone had left me with little impetus to upgrade my service to HD. And like you, I just couldn't bear the idea of having to watch- dare I say it- LIVE TV without the ability of pausing, rewinding, recording, etc on Tivo. So we watch crappy images of TV and only get good clarity when watching DVD's. Funy, Tivo never looked crappy on a 27" tube- amazing the difference going to 50. And to think it looked so big when I unboxed it...

And we have another TV in a seperate room that we wanted to put a Tivo on so I'm really thinking it's time for an HD. Oh, and my current lack of having dual tuners is really a pain sometimes. I sometimes transfer shows from the bedroom tivo to the one in the living room when I've had overlapping recordings but the transfer rates are just so slow that I hate having to do it.

I started researching last night to see if the hard drive upgrade procedures for an HD Tivo were basicaly same as what I did on my series 2 and discovered that you can simply plug in an additional drive externally that adds to the capacity of the internal drive. Cool.... at $200 for a 500GB drive from Tivo that dosn't void the warranty and saves me the time of doing the swap- I think I may have to consider that.

Well, I guess I've diverted off-topic. Hoping to have a HD purchased before Christmas so I'll reply back once I've had the pleasure of dealing with cableone again and let you know how it goes.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Just out of curiousity what HD channels do you guys get up there in Boise? 

We've got:

HBO
local broadcast stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and Fox)
Universal HD
ESPN and ESPN2
HD Theater (Discovery Channel)
National Geographic
A&E
Home & Garden
Food Network

The channels from HD Theater down are an extra package with the associated fee of course.

What I want to see coming in on HD:
more Discovery channel stuff
SciFi network (Doctor Who in HD would rock)
History channel


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## msu-dawg (Jan 7, 2006)

So BiloxiGeek, if you don't mind my asking, how much does your cable bill run? Right now I've just got standard analog cable (channels up to 99). I'm curious how much my bill will go up when I switch to a HD Tivo.

From the cableone website I think it says I'm looking at an additional $10/month to switch to digital + an additional $5/month if I want to actually get any more channels than I'm getting now (that being the 300 series channels). This seems like a ripoff to charge an additional $10 for the same channels I currently get, just to say it's digital. But I guess the extra $5 then gets quite a few more channels.

But, in order to actually receive any channels in HD, I still have to pay more for the HD channels (450-492 is it?) right? Not sure how much that is- maybe $10 based on vague info on website. And on top of that, the extra package HD channels that you mentioned is an additional fee on top of that? But how much?

And to top it all off, do I still have to pay additional fee for using cablecards instead of their supplied tuner or DVR tuner???

I don't know why they can't just make a simple tool on the website that allows you to select what services you want and then tells you how much the cost would be.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Haven't gotten a bill since I upgraded to the HD. Previously my bill was around $140 which includes the internet connection, HBO, Cinemax, two decoder boxes and the extra digital package. I dropped one of the decoder boxes when I switched over to HD. But added the additional HD package to get HD Theater and they'll also be adding the fee for the two S-cards. Right now I'm not really sure what my new bill will come in at.


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## IDSmoker (Apr 11, 2004)

*BiloxiGeek*: The only HD channels I've got that aren't on your list are ShowTime HD and The Movie Channel (TMCHD) which are both part of the ShowTime premium package. Although I've had a problem with the guide data being consistently off for ShowTime HD making it impossible to record from it. CableOne was less than helpful, putting the blame on the cablecards and/or TiVo.

At first I was getting a hi-def feed of TNT that was really nice for watching shows like The Closer and Saving Grace, but I guess CableOne figured they could charge more for it by dropping it for awhile. I imagine they will re-add it in the next round of changes (along with SciFi, I hope) for yet another additional fee.

*msu-dawg*: I agree that they don't make it easy to know how much your bill will be before you receive it. Unfortunately, I can't help you much because I'm also using CableOne for my internet service. Between internet, HBO & SHO, the digital package with high-def, and a couple of cablecards along with another standard tuner, I'm paying ~$130 a month.


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## msu-dawg (Jan 7, 2006)

I ended up calling someone to clarify the cost increase. Basically my cost increased by $16 + taxes to go from the basic 99 channels analog to HD with 2 cablecards, including the additional $5 HD channels as well as the extended non-HD channels. I didn't think this was too bad.

I bought the HD unit last week and went down to the cable office on Monday, hoping they'd just give me the cards- no such luck. The installed showed up here today and installed the cablecards. He had never installed them in a Tivo and didn't seem too sure about it. During installation we got an error 161-4 on both cards. A quick google search indicated that this error wasn't a problem and to ignore it. So far the HD channels I've tune to are working- and boy does it look good!


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Now if we could get CableOne to make up their freakin' minds on the WPMI/WDSU thing. They recently switched the NBC feed from a Mobile AL station to a New Orleans station with no warning. Only way I found out was that I started to watch the in progress recording of the NHL Winter Classic game last Saturday to find nothing but blank screen. Still waiting for the guide database to get updated to the channel change also. But I did notify Tivo about the lineup change.

And some more HD content would be nice too.


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## msu-dawg (Jan 7, 2006)

BiloxiGeek said:


> Now if we could get CableOne to make up their freakin' minds on the WPMI/WDSU thing. They recently switched the NBC feed from a Mobile AL station to a New Orleans station with no warning. Only way I found out was that I started to watch the in progress recording of the NHL Winter Classic game last Saturday to find nothing but blank screen. Still waiting for the guide database to get updated to the channel change also. But I did notify Tivo about the lineup change.
> 
> And some more HD content would be nice too.


I guess that explains why my HD WDSU channel had no guide info. I also noticed yesterday that the channel lineup on their website has only 2 HD channels (HGTV and Food Network) listed in the HD Upgrade Packge ($5 more). When I had looked previously I'm sure more of the HD channels were in that group rather than the standard HD group, which is why I chose to spend the additional $5. Hmmm...


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

msu-dawg: Did you get a lineup change this weekend that adds Discovery HD on 494 which is still HD Theater? I'd like to think that CableOne is adding DHD but I don't want to get my hopes up.

TiVo did get the lineup change pushed out for WDSU at least. So I got guide info on that channel now.


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## msu-dawg (Jan 7, 2006)

BiloxiGeek said:


> msu-dawg: Did you get a lineup change this weekend that adds Discovery HD on 494 which is still HD Theater? I'd like to think that CableOne is adding DHD but I don't want to get my hopes up.
> 
> TiVo did get the lineup change pushed out for WDSU at least. So I got guide info on that channel now.


As I recall, before I got my HD unit and signed up the Discovery HD Theater channel showed up among the group of upgrade HD channels at $5. But now that I've signed up, DHD and several other channels seem to have moved into the standard group. So I'm currently pay8ng the $5 extra for only HGTV and FoodNetwork in HD.


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## IDSmoker (Apr 11, 2004)

Thanks for posting about Discovery HD moving back to the "standard" HD package! If it wasn't for reading your posts I would never have known that I'm now receiving the HD feed of Discovery, NGC, and AETV (even if TiVo still thinks that DSCHD is actually HDT).

It looks like the only channels currently in the "extended" HD package (the $5 upgrade) are currently HGC and Food. I'll consider getting this package when they eventually get around to adding SciFi and TNT.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

msu-dawg said:


> As I recall, before I got my HD unit and signed up the Discovery HD Theater channel showed up among the group of upgrade HD channels at $5. But now that I've signed up, DHD and several other channels seem to have moved into the standard group. So I'm currently pay8ng the $5 extra for only HGTV and FoodNetwork in HD.


Where are you seeing that HD Theater is not in the $5 expanded group? CableOne's lineup (http://www.cableone.net/lineup/) is still showing these five channels as the expanded group.

HD THEATER
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HD
A&E HD
HGTV HD
FOOD NETWORK HD

I still don't see Discovery HD anywhere in their lineup. It's showing up in my TiVo's guide as 494 but that's HD Theater.

P.S. I just checked the lineup for Boise and it's the same expanded package as Biloxi.


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## msu-dawg (Jan 7, 2006)

BiloxiGeek said:


> Where are you seeing that HD Theater is not in the $5 expanded group? CableOne's lineup (http://www.cableone.net/lineup/) is still showing these five channels as the expanded group.
> 
> HD THEATER
> NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HD
> ...


When I look at the channel lineup for Diamondhead (39525) I see:

450 HBO HDTV HBO in HDTV

451 SHOWTIME HDTV Showtime HDTV

452 TBS TBS

453 TMC HD The Movie Channel HD

454 TNT Turner Network Television

455 ABC HD ABC Network in HD

460 CBS HD WKRG CBS in HD

466 NBC HD NBC in HD

470 PBS HDTV PBS in HDTV

475 FOX HD WXXV FOX in HD

490 UNIVERSAL HD Universal HD

491 ESPN HD ESPN in HDTV

492 ESPN2 HD ESPN2 HD

494 DISCOVERY Discovery Channel

495 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HD NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HD

496 A&E HD A&E HD

497 HGTV HD HGTV HD

498 FOOD NETWORK HD FOOD NETWORK HD

where only the last two (HGTV and FN) are colored tan. All the others are colored light blue.

Maybe I'm confused but I thought HD Theater was just another name for Discovery HD?

BTW, when I clicked on the link you included I got the channel lineup page but with no channels listed, I presume because the website didn't have a ZIP code set.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

msu-dawg said:


> 494 DISCOVERY Discovery Channel
> 
> 495 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HD NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HD
> 
> ...


Your lineup in Diamondhead is different from Biloxi's. HD Theater is not the same as Discovery HD.


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## msu-dawg (Jan 7, 2006)

BiloxiGeek said:


> Your lineup in Diamondhead is different from Biloxi's. HD Theater is not the same as Discovery HD.


I looked at my 494 and the logo on screen says HD Theater so I guess the listing on their website is wrong maybe?


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Double check your lineup and which packages you're paying CableOne for. Apparently on January 1st they changed the $5 HD Tier to only be Home & Garden TV and Food TV. The other HD channels have moved into the regular (no extra fee) lineup. Would have been nice if they had notified us of the change. I looked at my last two bills and there was no announcement that I can find.


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## madperk (Aug 20, 2002)

Looks like everyone has had a pretty good experience with tiVoHD and Cable One. I have had some problems and I am hoping someone out there has had a similar experience with a solution.

Short Version.

Does anyone with a TiVoHD use a multi Stream Card from Cable One. Does anyone with two single stream cards have an issue where the HD Channels do not display in the guide properly.

Long Version
I switch to my TiVoHD back in November and requested a Multi Stream Cable Card. When the tech arrived he installed two single stream cards. He proceeded to tell me that two single stream cards will work the same as a multi stream card. Makes sense but i had requested the Multi Stream after talking to TiVo support prior to requesting the cable card from CableOne. 

Some of the channels were not showing up in the guide properly but the tech assured me that they would be there with in 4 hours. As these channels were not high on my priority list(to be honest the only one that i would watch is A&EHD) i did not notice for some time that the channels were not showing properly. 

When i finally had the time to give Cableone a call over the christmas holiday, i put TiVo Support and CableOne support in a conference call. I just figured that i would let them fight it out as to who needed to correct the problem. This was after spending time with both support groups that wanted to blame the problem with the other group.

I was told, from the Cable one support person, that they had seen problems with a dual single stream card setup and that i shold have better results with the single multi-stream card. So the next business day off that I had was last week. I schedule a support visit on Friday morning and requested the two single stream cards be replaced with a multi-stream card. 

The tech showed up with out a card. The service order stated that they were to look at a problem with my DVR that rent from cable one. The person that was responsible for issuing a cable card was out of the office and the tech could not get one. another vacation day wasted. 

Now when i talked to the local support people this morning, still on hold for corp support in Phoenix, I have been told that they don't have the multi-stream card and my problem is with my TiVo. ugh. starting over again with a cable one-tivo conference call tonight.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

I'm having no issues with two single stream cards. All the channels seem to be there and working just fine.

I have seen one bit of wierdness lately. Three times now TiVo has told me that there's a channel lineup change and Discovery HD has been added on 494. That would awesome if it were true. 494 is still HD Theater. So now I have two channel 494's, one with guide data for HD Theater, the other shows Discovery HD. But they're both the same freaking channel.


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## IDSmoker (Apr 11, 2004)

I'm not having any problems with the cablecards either.

The only issue I've had is the ongoing one where the HD Showtime channel is several hours off from the guide data. I've reported this several times to both CableOne and TiVo without any noticeable effect. I've had this problem since day one and have just learned to put up with it.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

I did catch a commercial earlier this week from CableOne that said they'd soon be adding some of the Discovery channel stuff into the HD lineup. No date of course but at least it seems that I'll finally start getting Discovery HD sometime soon.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Got back from a short vacation on Wednesday to find The Learning Channel and Discovery Channel both in HD have been added to the CableOne Biloxi lineup. Finally MythBusters in HD!!  Discovery is on 425, can't remember exactly which channel TLC is on.


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## Cor (Oct 18, 2006)

Do not use single stream cards in your TIVO/TV they are obsolete and not supported anymore. better is to request Multistream cards you need 2 for a TIVO 3 and you can use 1 for a TIVO HD.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Cor said:


> Do not use single stream cards in your TIVO/TV they are obsolete and not supported anymore. better is to request Multistream cards you need 2 for a TIVO 3 and you can use 1 for a TIVO HD.


Not supported?? Well how in the heck are both of mine working then? You probably should back up such an absolute statement with some facts.

There's plenty of folks on this forum with single stream cards that are quite happy with them. And more than a few that have asked for multistream cards from their cable company and couldn't get them because the cable company isn't using them.

Or are you just trolling for a little controversy?


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## Cor (Oct 18, 2006)

Single stream cards are obsolete. and yes your right there are still out in the field, and yes they are working like a champ. i didn't say that. it is the fact that they are still availble at providers.


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## Cor (Oct 18, 2006)

Forgot to mention we as cable provider use them the Multi Stream cards and we know for a fact that the Single Stream Cards in our department are only used for Toshiba Cable Card TVs because Toshiba had told us that Multi Stream Cards are not supported in their TVs. And this is a FACT. Upgraded the TV myself from this customer and Multi Stream didn't work. Single Stream works like a champ.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Just a heads up note: CableOne in Biloxi just added History Channel in HD on channel 423.


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## icehole (Nov 26, 2009)

sorry for necro'n a dead thread, but this subject has already been touched on here..

Has anyone actually gotten multistream cards from cableone.. According to cable one in boise ID they only offer single stream cards..


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

I've asked that question to the corporate level customer support because I'm considering buying one of the new TiVo's that only have the single cablecard slot. The reply I got a couple weeks ago was that they are ordering M-cards and should have them in a few weeks time.


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## IDSmoker (Apr 11, 2004)

I just got off the phone with cableone support to try to fix a guide issue, since the latest shuffling of CW & FOX hi-def channels resulted in my not getting the correct guide data for the new CW hi-def channel (#485). They recommended that I try re-pairing my cablecards!?!?

I haven't had to mess with my cablecards since they were installed, so I was surprised at the changes I found in the cablecard sub-menu. I tried running the diagnostics option, but that just caused my S3 to hang (requiring a hard reset).

While waiting for the diagnostics to run (while I still had hope it wasn't hung), the tech suggested that I switch my Series 3 over to using a multistream cablecard.


Does anyone have any experience using a multistream cablecard with a Series3 on CableONE?


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## edubbrulez (Mar 5, 2004)

Series 3 supports multistream cards but only in Single stream mode:

http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/144

For the guide issue, I'm assuming you are referring to the Tivo guide. If so, report a lineup issue here:

http://www.tivo.com/setupandsupport/contactsupport/lineup_tool.html

It doesn't require you to re-pair your cable cards.

Erik


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Just got off the phone with CableOne in Gulfport Ms. They informed me that I can come by their Long Beach office and pick up 3 M-Stream cards for my two Tivo-HD's and one Tivo Premiere and once I have them installed I call one of their associates to get the cards provisioned. 

Will update later this evening or tomorrow on how well this works out.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Got 3 M stream cards without any hassle at the office. (They kind of look brand new even) Got the first installed in my new TiVo Premiere Elite and all is fine in the world.

Next up, pull S stream cards from two TiVo HD's and get them provisioned on M stream cards.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

Well the two TiVo HD's that each had two single stream cards are now happy with M stream cards. Had to talk to a Team Lead at the CableOne Customer Care Center and he had to do some jiggery-pokery on the cards but it's all better now.


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## BiloxiGeek (Nov 18, 2001)

New Roamio Plus installed with an M stream card, first one was apparently bad. Got all my channels except HBO and Cinemax so I has to go trade the cablecard for a different one. Second one is working good.


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