A/V upgrade update: Delivery and CableCARDS
I’m expecting the the new plasma screen sometime tomorrow and the TiVo HD XL a day later. I’ll try and keep updating the blog with progress reports. The saga will involve dealings with Comcast, which always carries with it the chance of extraordinary frustration, but I’ll keep an open mind and if my dealings with Comcast on this are pleasant and effective, I’ll certainly say so here.
My first (minor) frustration so far has been with the delivery company for the plasma set — Pilot. According to their own website, they have “left a message” with me and that they are waiting for the customer to “take action.” They left no such message. I did indeed take action and called them. The dispatch person told me yesterday that the set had arrived in Boston and that they would call me to arrange delivery “in a day or two”. I double checked the phone number that they had on file and it was right. She didn’t know why the note said they’d left a message, but was confident they would call me to arrange the appointment. There’s been no call yet, so we’ll see.
The reason I’ll have to deal with Comcast is that the TiVo I ordered requires a CableCARD in order to function. A CableCARD is basically an HD set top box without the box. The TiVo becomes the converter, and the cable package I purchase through Comcast is decoded by Comcast’s CableCARD. Doing research, I read scads of horror stories (like this one!) from people doing essentially exactly the thing I’ll be doing over the next week. I did find one BTVer (@macaddict89 on Twitter) who has a TiVo HD with a multi-tuner CableCARD from Comcast and everything seems to have worked for him without a hitch. Here’s hoping.
Stay tuned.
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Since 2004 Candleblog has been the online journal of Vermont filmmaker, Bill Simmon. Bill and his wife, Emily, use Candleblog as a repository of pop culture ephemera, amusing anecdotes, occasional deep thoughts and anything else they think is web-worthy.
Bill will be presenting a brief talk on the importance of community media at the 2010 SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas. The presentation is called Hyperlocal Focus: Growing a Vibrant Community Media Ecosystem.
Candleblog has received the Seven Days "Daysie" Award for Best Vermont Blog (non-political) in 2005, 2007 and 2008.
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I had a pleasant experience with Comcast and my TiVoHD. I was there and brought him to the screens, but he knew what to do from there. Works well. Good luck.
I see you stumbled across my little horror story. If it’s any consolation, the efficacy of Comcast’s CableCARD handling appears to be entirely dependent on the local office and the equipment they use. If you’re in one of Comcast’s Motorola markets — which you probably are, as they account for about 90% of Comcast’s footprint — you will probably have no issues.
If you’re getting a multi-stream CableCARD (a.k.a. an M-card), you’ll probably fare better. There aren’t any M-cards in my area yet so I was stuck with a pair of single-stream cards, which apparently is a nightmare for the local Comcast billing system.
Best of luck on the install and I hope you have a good experience. And enjoy the TiVo HD XL! (I put a 1 TB drive in my TiVo HD, and it’s almost hilarious how much stuff you can store on it.)
C.O., the HD set top box I have now is a Scientific Atlana. Does that mean I’m in a SA area? The one report I’ve heard from someone local is that they have an M-card, so I’m hopeful on that count.
Yeah, 150 hours of HD content sounds like a lot, but somehow I’m pretty sure I’ll still be fighting for room on the drive in no time.
Hello,
Congrats on your new purchases. There’s no reason why you should have trouble with installing cable cards and we would like to ensure that you are cared for. Please get an email to my team and I and we will make that happen.
Best,
Detreon Roberts
Comcast National Customer Operations
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com
Bill – Yeah, if you have an S.A. cable box, then you’re in an S.A. area. That said, if Comcast actually has M-cards in your area, that puts them at least one very important step ahead of my local guys.
Incidentally, Detreon speaks truth when he says his team can help you. Since the advent of Comcast’s national customer operations group, I’ve had numerous problems solved that the local phone reps couldn’t or wouldn’t help me with. If you have any trouble, drop them an email and it’ll probably be sorted out very quickly.
That’s good to hear, and as I said, I will certainly publish my experiences with Comcast — good or bad — here. Though this says something really odd about Comcast’s customer relations. I’ve mentioned this before on this blog, but it’s really strange that Comcast gives preferential treatment to customers who say bad things about them in social media. The only reason I know about these national customer relations avenues is because I’ve bitched about Comcast on this blog and on Twitter. The “let me make this right for you” attitude is admirable, but you don’t encounter that on the phone in your average Comcast CSR call — you only encounter it after you publicly express your disgust for the company. The effect is actually to *encourage* public complaints as it’s the only way to get some satisfaction from the company. Someone very high up in the Comcast customer relations chain of command needs to be fired.
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