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Not Many People Use Standalone CableCards
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Geoff Hayes
10/01/09

In reply to Not Many People Use Standalone CableCards
I don't normally comment on stories, but I felt the need to weigh in on this...I live in a pretty rural area, Pullman WA, I am sure some of you know it and I had to fight to get Time Warner to give me cable cards. I have two Tivo boxes and they only wanted to give me one card total...so only one for two boxes.

They told me it was company policy to not support cable cards and that the law about support cablecards was a myth. I called Tivo and TW support every few days and finally got a TW tech to put in a request to have 4 (2 for each box) cablecards installed.

The office in Pullman here called and yelled at me for going over their head and even tried to cancel my install, but they failed.

And you know what the best part was. When the tech showed up it took him all of 5 minutes to install all 4 cards, and when I told him about what the local office had told me, he was shocked - as in no one ever told him about the 1 cablecard policy.

I mean, it is hard to believe people hate Time Warner.
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spannu
10/01/09

In reply to Not Many People Use Standalone CableCards
Every time I've asked about getting a CableCard, Comcast claims to have no idea what they even are.
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SarasaDighton
10/01/09

In reply to Not Many People Use Standalone CableCards
The picture that you will receive (HD) is superior to that you will receive via the set top box

We performed several tests using TWC service

http://watercooler.jlaforums.com
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ts-x
10/01/09

In reply to Not Many People Use Standalone CableCards
For me it's been a Tale of Two Cablecards...

With Comcast it took five tries to get a single multi-stream card installed in my Tivo. First technician didn't bring the card, second brought a single-stream, third brought two single-streams, fourth brought a defective multi-stream. Even on the fifth attempt, the installer had no clue how to properly configure it.

Jump forward to my new residence and FIOS. In one single appt the technician brought and properly installed a multi-stream card (verifying it's compatibility with my Tivo's firmware in the process). During the same appt he installed a single-stream card in another TV without issue.

Conclusion: Uninformed/unqualified installation technicians are a significant contributor to the problem.
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Neight
10/01/09

In reply to Not Many People Use Standalone CableCards
From COMCAST:

"If you prefer to use a CableCARD instead of using a Digital Cable set-top box, you will only be able to receive one way Digital Cable channels and will not be able to receive ON DEMAND, pay-per-view and the interactive programming guide."

Sorry, those negatives are FAR too negative to outweigh not having a box.
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nukee
10/01/09

In reply to Not Many People Use Standalone CableCards
If my TV supported it, I would get one for the convenience of having every channel at my disposal.
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Xeno
10/01/09

@nukee: Before my cablecard tuners I had one in my plasma and it worked great.
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VirtuosoZero
10/01/09

In reply to Not Many People Use Standalone CableCards
I pay $12 a month for a DVR from Comcast that can record 2 different channels at the same time in high def.

To build a box to do the same would cost a min of $600+Tivo sub...
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Xeno
10/01/09

@VirtuosoZero: The thing is... that box sucks. The Order of goodness is:
Cable Co. DVR < Hysterectomy < Boxee < XBMC < TiVO < WMC
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Hiphopopotamus
10/01/09

In reply to Not Many People Use Standalone CableCards
The problem is CableCards don't facilitate the use of TVs other, superior recent innovation - DVR. Instead you have to rent the cablecard from your provider and then pay monthly fees to TiVo, paying more in the process than you would if you just kept your cable company-provided set top DVR.
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OCEntertainment
10/01/09

In reply to Not Many People Use Standalone CableCards
Yeah, I'm gonna go with consumer education being part of the problem. I had no idea these things existed! I'm not entirely sure what type of card this is, but I *think* I actually inherited the kind of drive one would need to use this in a desktop. I would've gladly taken one with our new AT&T service we just installed, had I known.
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reddingofish
10/01/09

In reply to Not Many People Use Standalone CableCards
I asked my local Time Warner and they said that they do not offer cable cards.
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