One Week Before the Deadline, Cox is Allowing CableCARD Self-Installs

Posted on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 by MegaZone

CableCARD With five says left before the August 1st deadline, Cox Communications has begun allowing customers to self-install CableCARDs, according to this post on TiVo Community from Sunday. They’ve even released self-install guides to help users with their Cisco or Motorola CableCARD installation. Given the dearth of CableCARD products on the market, TiVo users will likely be the prime benefactors. No more paying for a truck roll just to have a CableCARD installed, or to re-pair it with the unit, or move it to a new box.

Verizon had previously started allowing self-installs. With the August first deadline looming, will the other major players roll out self-install support on time? Will the rest of the MSOs wait until the last minute? Have you spotted any of them rolling out CableCARD self install support already? If so, let me know!

About MegaZone

MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging.    MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web.    You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.
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  • http://profiles.google.com/1brandonc Brandon c

    Good deal. Cox has never charge us for setting up and installing cable cards in a new Tivo or if there were problems with them. But it’s good to know that now I can just do it myself without the need of their ‘farmed out’ service guys coming out.
    BTW, anyone that has a Tivo S3 or Premiere and Cox service get 2 Multi stream cards for your TiVo(s). It will solve problems of jerky video and other issues.

    • http://www.zatznotfunny.com Dave Zatz

      Cox in VA charged me $30 per set ($60) despite missing the first appointment. And the SDV Tuning Adapters were hellish.

    • http://www.zatznotfunny.com Dave Zatz

      Cox in VA charged me $30 per set ($60) despite missing the first appointment. And the SDV Tuning Adapters were hellish.

  • Fanfoot

    Thanks Mega, good reminder.

    FWIW I did just check around and haven’t found any definitive proof that Comcast will be offering self-installs as of Aug 1st one way or the other.  Looks like they took down that web page that seemed to make it clear, but we won’t really know until Aug 1.  A bunch of us will certainly be asking for cable cards on that date and we’ll certainly see what happens.

    BTW reading through the forums reminded me to check my bill and guess what?  Comcast was mis-charging me for my cable cards.  I have two Tivo HD’s, each with a single multi-stream card, and they should both be free since I only used one card for each.  But Comcast was charging me a horrid $1.10/month.  The interesting thing was the wording on the bill:

    —
    Cablecard (additional Card IN Same Device)  07/07 – 08/06       1.10
    —

    Since it made it so obvious I was being charged incorrectly, I thought I’d look up the previous wording.  It was:

    —
    Dual C-card Dig Access  08/07 – 09/06    1.50
    —

    I was pretty sure that isn’t the same wording they used to use, figured this changed due to the FCC rulings on this stuff.  Looked through my previous ebills and looks like they changed the wording last October/November. 

    Hit Comcast up on chat and had them correct the bill.  So you saved me some money.  In the chat the Comcast service person said:

    “Yes, we are going to offer Self-Installation Kits for Cable cards effective August 1. You can pick them up at your local office.”

    (copied from my chat session). 

    Also if you go to:

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

    And click on the first item (Can I purchase a CableCARD, and if so, where?) you’ll see:

    “CableCARD ready devices can be purchased at retail stores, but the
    CableCARD, which is necessary to activate the video service, is provided
    by Comcast. The CableCARD can be provided as part of a professional
    installation or self-installation.”

    which is the same language people had seen on the web before.  So I’d say this is confirmed, and we’re just waiting for somebody to actually try it.

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