FCC has mandated customers can use their own cable box....

[willdav713]

Back in 2011, the FCC mandated customers can bring their own third party box to use for Digital Cable services.

I have purchased two Cable Boxes off E-Bay.

First one is a Motorola DCH-200
Second one is a ATI Digital Cable Tuner (which I will have to replace my video card and Cable TV tuner in order for it to work under Windows 7)

I rented one cable card with Time Warner Cable but all I get is a please wait message on my Motorola DCH-200. However the box came with a Motorola M-Card inside, I contacted Time Warner and give them the host and cable card id on screen and they sent the pairing information, but here is the problem I have with it:

1. Cable channels are view able but only the ones that are cable ready such as channel 3, and 40.

2. Services past the last cable ready channel I get the message stating "please wait the channel will be available shortly"

3. Guide says To Be Announced

TWC is clueless about said FCC mandate?

This has been a FCC policy since November 2011.

Any one can shed some light on here?

Is there a code I am supposed to enter besides powering it off and back on and pressing select for the Diagnostics Menu?

I prefer to own my equipment vs. leasing, and no I don't want a Tivo!

 

[Darth_vader]

The obvious (and wise) choice. In fact, this is an example of what can eventually happen to people who rent/lease telecoms equipment, including cable TV receivers:

http://www.frillfreephones.com/1phre.html

Basically, you'd end up paying full-price for it many times over, likely hundreds of times in excess of what the equipment is actually worth or even its original market value. Definitely not a good deal, and I'm surprised companies are still allowed to do it these days. Buyer beware.

 

[willdav713]

The obvious (and wise) choice. In fact, this is an example of what can eventually happen to people who rent/lease telecoms equipment, including cable TV receivers:

http://www.frillfreephones.com/1phre.html

Basically, you'd end up paying full-price for it many times over, likely hundreds of times in excess of what the equipment is actually worth or even its original market value. Definitely not a good deal, and I'm surprised companies are still allowed to do it these days. Buyer beware.

You would think they would have been mandated to refund these customers after AT&T started to rebuild it's land line monopoly.

 

[Darth_vader]

*imitating Lily Tomlin*

A refund? *high-pitch laughing* Oh, willdav713, they don't have to give the customer a refund! They're the Telephone Company!

 

[willdav713]

*imitating Lily Tomlin*

A refund? *high-pitch laughing* Oh, willdav713, they don't have to give the customer a refund! They're the Telephone Company!

You do understand that SNL skit was from the 70's, however if you want to pay for services you don't receive, by all means knock your self out.

If that happen to me, I would work my way up through the food chain, and include the FCC if necessary. Of course, I watch what the channels that are on Switched Digital Video which is CSPAN, and PEG channels. So with Time Warner not having SDV isn't an option.

 

[Darth_vader]

"You do understand that Saturday Night Live sketch was from the '70s"

No kidding.

"however if you want to pay for services you don't receive, by all means knock yourself out."

You've never had to deal with ¢entury£ink, have you? $118.52/month currently gets me a hummy/buzzy voice line with intermittent dial tone, operators that aren't even there 98% of the time (and the few times you do manage to get one, they won't even do squat to help you with anything) and a 7Mb/s ADSL line on a fibre concentrator that, on a good day, I can maybe get 3 1/2Mb/s downloads on. That, and they also charged me for the entire month of January, despite my line being disconnected because of supposed "nonpayment" of my December bill. I actually did manage to get a full refund for that last week, albeit not without first having to threaten them with the words, "public utilities commission". Paying for services one isn't (or only partially) receiving is a way of life these days. Thank the gods I've never tried leasing a fone from them.

Oh yeah, and I still can't get them to give me a phone book, because I don't have long-distance service on the voice line--which, incidentally, is a problem I've been having ever since QWEST days (for the record, the worst of the problems I'd ever had with them.)

"Of course, I watch what the channels that are on Switched Digital Video which is CSPAN, and PEG channels. So with Time Warner not having SDV isn't an option."

Check Silicondust. Those may be (probably are) available in the clear via QAM in your area.

 

[KeithE4]

*imitating Lily Tomlin*

A refund? *high-pitch laughing* Oh, willdav713, they don't have to give the customer a refund! They're the Telephone Company!

You do understand that SNL skit was from the 70's...

Actually, it was originally from Laugh-In, circa 1969.

 

[Darth_vader]

Yeah, but she also played Ernestine in a parody commercial on "Saturday Night Live" at the beginning of the show's run. ("We don't care--we don't have to! We're the Telephone Company!")

Needless to say, those sketches really were quite a few years (decades) ahead of their time. Lily Tomlin was a prophetess.

 

[willdav713]

"Of course, I watch what the channels that are on Switched Digital Video which is CSPAN, and PEG channels. So with Time Warner not having SDV isn't an option."

Check Silicondust. Those may be (probably are) available in the clear via QAM in your area.

When I had my Panasonic DMR-EZ47V DVD recorder with Digital QAM tuner, I couldn't receive Channel 6 and 17 which went digital. So Time Warner does encrypt them. Even with CableCard (which Silcon Dust uses) I still have to lease their Cisco STA-1520 Adapter. Since they do that with Austin City Council channel 6, and Travis County Television, I don't know if they are aware but they are violating the Texas Open Meetings Act by encrypting those particular channels. I am going to send the complaint off to the Texas Attorney General and hope they investigate the matter. It is not just Austin, but San Antonio as well.

 

[Darth_vader]

The DMR-EZ47 isn't compatible with 256QAM signals! The Time-Warner system in Austin (which is where I assume you are based on your sigblock) uses 256QAM transmisison. I have an EZ27K, which uses the same chipset as the -47, and haven't been able to receive anything from the ¢om¢a$t system here with it after they went to 256QAM a few years back. (http://silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineup_web/US:98660#lineup_9137442)

http://silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineup_web/US:78701#lineup_9141856 and #lineup_9140831 shows channel 6 (CITY), at least, as being in the clear.