nemein

I have a new HD Tivo that I connected to my Sony receiver/plasma via HDMI and wrt that everything works great. The problem is I'm not getting all of the HD channels that I would w/ the cable provided box (Cox Communications if that matters). Now for some of them the installer thought I should be getting them so they are coming back out w/ some more cable cards to see if maybe I have a bad one (I guess potentially the Tivo itself could be bad too but there's been no indications so far of any other problems). Even if that is worked out though the installer said there are some HD channels I just won't get. Has anyone heard of this? I read a bunch of reviews about the Tivo but no one mentioned anything about some HD channels not coming in. Supposedly there is some sort of dongle/insert that Tivo is coming out w/ that'll go between the Tivo and the incoming cable from the wall. Was the installer just blowing smoke or is there something to this?

GreenMonkey

Depends on your provider. This could be the problem:

http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2007-11/...ngle-for-2008/

Some of the cable providers are moving away from the old standard to a newer SDV standard that isn't cablecard compatible.

But SDV dongles are supposed to be available now.

Discussion at tivocommunity forums:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...d.php?t=375723

(I just got a Tivo HD myself about a month ago).

Normally this kind of issue is a problem with the cablecard encryption settings but I'm not sure if your provider is doing SDV. I don't know a whole lot about it since Charter isn't one of those companies so far.

SoSpacey

Sounds like you have signal loss. It is an easy fix.

I don't know anything about your set up so let me ask....

Is this a single family house?

After the main cable comes to your house from the street, how big is the splitter on the outside of the house (or the insdie if the main comes directly in)?

The cable going into the Tivo is a direct line from the main splitter?

Is the cable split in the room to a modem or something?


No matter what your answers are try to add an amplifier to your set-up. Most cable companies provide them for free or you can buy your own. Is is basically a jack that the wall cable does into and then amplifies the signal to increase strength.

Before I added an amplifier, I was missing a bunch of HD channels and even some SD channels. Afterward they were all there.

nemein

Townhouse, 3 way splitter from the main input, the feed to the Tivo is directly off the splitter. I guess it could be a signal loss thing, the only reason I think it might not be that though is the Cox DVR was working perfectly on the same connection and if it was signal loss I would expect it to be a little more random than an entire tier. Maybe though that tier is based on a different signal so that could be it... I don't know anything about how cable works.

Anyway, I have Cox coming back out on Monday, hopefully w/ a couple of Scards instead of the Mcard since people on the Tivo community site seem to be having more luck w/ them. If that doesn't work I may switch to FIOS since it seems there are fewer people w/ complaints on that.

SoSpacey

the cable company has amplifiers they will give you. just ask them to bring it with them and try it.

nemein

It turned out mostly to be a cable card issue. The Mcard was always problematic so on the recommendation of the tivocommunity place mentioned above (thanks for the link btw ) I got them to install 2 Scards and it seems to be working fine... well almost There are still some HD channels missing but that seems to be related to another issue, SDV which is going to be another longer/more problematic issue to deal w/.