[mythtv-users] Comcast CableCard Info

Ken Truesdale kat at tiac.net
Tue Jul 26 20:05:15 UTC 2011


On Jul 22, 2011, at 10:09 AM, Jeffrey Hahn wrote:
> That's what I did this past Wednesday, since I was a block away from
> my local office on unrelated business. The conversation with the
> people at the counter went something like this:
> 
> Me: Do you have any cablecards for self-install?
> Associate 1: No, we need to send a tech out to install those. We don't
> keep any in stock here.
> Me: Uh, do you know when you're going to get the self-install kits?
> Associate 1: We don't have any plans to offer that.
> Associate 2: (Chimes in from a few windows down the counter) We are
> going to offer it, but we don't know when.
> Associate 1: Oh, we're going to offer it, but we don't know when.
> 
> This is where I gave up.


I too had bad luck when I called Comcast last week - guy told me they don't have "pc cards", just cards that go in TVs.  I told him my PC was special and converted just for this purpose.  His response:  "huh."  I told him I'd call back another time.  He also told me that the cable card would cost $1.50 a month.  



On Jul 22, 2011, at 9:27 AM, Steven Adeff wrote:
> I'm in Boston too, I have a Prime coming in but may also buy a Ceton
> now that Rob has it basically working in 0.24. My local office does
> have a local number, but it isn't "listed" either, I forget how I got
> the number now though, I think a tech gave it to me when they came in
> to fix a cabling issue.
> 
> anyway, I'll be attempting to pick up a card as well. so we'll see how
> that goes...

Sensing I needed a second opinion from Comcast, I called back today.  I was prepared to do the phone order and set up the service appointment.  I asked about self-install and the person I talked to definitely had more going on than the person last week.  She said that cable card self-installs will be available in the Boston area on August 1st.  That's 6 days from now and rather than schedule a sure-to-go-badly tech visit for which I'd need to wait around for some long span of time, I figured I'd be better off just waiting until August 1.  She said I could order it by phone or pick it up in the local office.  I chose the local office option.  She told me that the cable card would be free.  I liked everything about this conversation better than the last one!  

(Of course, there's a good chance that the August 1 date is an estimate but I'll be away on a biz trip that week so I won't be able to be there right on August 1, anyway.)  


In related news, for anyone needing to convince a particular Comcast person about the Ceton, I also found this link, where among other things Comcast Cable Card related, it talks about, specifically, the Ceton:

http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQListViewer.aspx?topic=Cable&folder=1d57bd4f-4607-409c-b5dd-95f2d79475cc#faq_breakout2

So if anyone has trouble convincing somebody at Comcast that a Ceton card is real and something that Comcast works with, tell them to go to their own web site at customer.comcast.com and in the search box, enter "cable card".  The top search result in the box is the FAQ for cable cards and on that FAQ page the second group is about the Ceton.  


And lastly for now, an update on my question from yesterday about Windows version:  I went with Win 7 Pro which had enough Media Center in it to do what it needed to do with the Ceton setup.  I added a drive temporarily to my BE system for Windows but I also set up the drivers in the regular boot of Mythbuntu.  I can see the same Ceton web page either way.  Nothing to do now but wait for Aug 1 to get my cable card and give Ron's handiwork a go!  


Ken.


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