[mythtv-users] HDHR Prime queries

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 3:12 PM, Leo Butler <leo.butler at member.ams.org> wrote:
.....
> It depends. The cable companies really are not configured to help with
> cablecard devices, since it is an infinitesimal fraction of their
> business.

Agreed, highly variable.  With some providers you can do it
on the web via their "self-activation" portal, some you can
do it with a few minute telephone conversation (most of
which is spent reading the numbers to the provider, and
then having them read back, to make sure they match, and
wating for them to send the activation signals to the unit),
and some require a tech visit, and then a follow on tech visit.

It might be useful for the OP to specify the location and
franchisee, as some are known to be easier to work with
than others.

It should be noted that the reports are always of the failures,
not the successes.  "100,000 flights landed without incident
today" is not news day after day after day.  So, if ones
impression is based only on the failures, one should
possibly avoid getting on a plane, too.  The FCC numbers
on CableCARD installs (which have a source bias, so they
themselves should be considered suspect) do show some
challenges, but even so, there seems to be a fair percentage
of successes.

It is probably telling that TiVo (which has the pricing and
subscription revenue to support this) will provide someone
to be a 3rd party on an activation call when doing it yourself
fails.  The TiVo techs know the magic terms, and what to
say, and what to look for, and have enough experience
with every provider to know where the common challenges
are.  Neither SiliconDust nor Ceton (which do not have
that pricing/subscription revenue stream) offer that service,
so for the problematic activations, you are going to see
reports.

While not as formal as the TiVo support, for the HDHR
Prime there is an active user community over on the
SiliconDust forums that can help get the card activated
(they are far less knowledgeable regarding MythTV,
come back here for that setup).  The participants have
seen it all (well, almost all) so what seems unusual, or
gobbledygook numbers to you has probably been seen,
or understood before.



There are a couple of "the first CableCARD is the hardest"
challenges for your first CableCARD installation, after which
the next ones go much easier:

It is not uncommon to find that in an older franchises (where
older means recently having a substantial analog presence)
that the cable company has used low/high/notch filters on
the lines (used to make sure that only subscribers could
get the premium channels) that need to be removed to get
digital service properly.  Once removed, you never have to
deal with them again at your current address.

While less common, it also happens that an account can
be assigned to the wrong headend port, which means that
the activiation signal goes to the wrong area.  No number
of "hits" activates the CableCARD.  Locations that were built
up years ago, and for which one is near various franchise
boundries are most likely to see this.  This one can be
especially annoying to get fixed, since the people who
activate the CableCARD over the phone (in a state far far
away) really have no way to know where you are physically
cabled to, so it has to get escalated to local engineering.
Once corrected in the account, you never have to deal with
this again at your current address.