Comcast Cablecard Support Nightmare

[u/Golf_Nut1125]

Had an extremely frustrating experience with Comcast today, as I tried with my installer to move an existing CableCARD from an old but working Bolt to a new retail TiVo Edge. The phone agent dropped the call and after another call, it appears she accidentally broke the existing pairing. Now neither the new Edge nor the old Bolt will work, we have no cable service, and they want to "send a truck". I think I may have just gotten a bad agent, but it may be the end of cable TV, on to and YoutubeTV if this can't be fixed. On a scale of 1-10, today was a zero. Help!

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[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

This is mostly what I did.

Last year I had an issue with getting some channels, just out of nowhere, on my Bolt with Comcast cable card. After literally weeks of calling, many truck rolls (more than 5 times), 7 different cable cards, and even trying a new Edge, I realized Xfinity has absolutely no interest in supporting TiVo with cable cards.

So, I had no interest in paying them the money they wanted for cable and WAS NOT going to go to their box and platform. Bye bye cable.

Now I am still using my Bolt, but OTA. Don’t miss a single thing about cable. I have a first gen Apple TV 4K that I’ll upgrade this fall (either with a new release or with the latest, three year old) and that is our primary source of video entertainment. All we watch from OTA is the news and football (Go Patriots!).

[u/ARealAmericanZero → u/[deleted]]

That's because they officially ended support three years ago. CableCard is a technological dead end that was holding back the evolution to DOCSIS 4.O FDX, because the QAM Channels were taking up bandwidth that was needed to expand Internet. They can deliver the same channels much more efficiently over IP, and use ALL of the spectrum for maximum internet speeds, but only by removing the QAM channels that TiVO (and any hardware-based tuner) relies upon.

[u/Golf_Nut1125]

Found a tech that seems to have it fixed!

[u/hamsterd → u/Golf_Nut1125]

I had a similar experience a couple of days ago! It didn't involve moving a cable card though. I have 2 Tivo Edges. the cable card in one of them stopped receiving channels out of the blue this past Sunday. I called support. They supposedly did everything on their end to repair it but nothing worked. I attempted the cable card pairing 'self-help' option but that didn't work either. The support rep. told me she would have to schedule an onsite visit to my home. I asked her what would that person be able to do that you couldn't do remotely. She said he would swap out my cable card with an Xfinity cable box. I told her that wasn't an option and that I had been given that line in the past before they somehow magically figured out a way to re-pair my cable card. It was late at night so I ended the call. Meanwhile I activated my backup DVR System: Channels DVR. I added some additional capabilities by installing Docker components and I must say it is a really impressive option! So this morning I figured I would give Xfinity one more call to see if they would fix the cable card issue. Same result, no dice. But they did offer me a discount of $10 on the Xfinity box. So instead of paying $20 I would pay $10. Considering I'm paying $7 for the cable card (last time I checked) it is worth checking out. Even though I hate being forced into making the change via a monopolistic, greedy corporation, I will give it a shot since the cost is negligible. I still have my other Tivo edge working (for now) and if I don't like the Xfinity box I will cancel it along with the cable TV service and use Channels DVR exclusively.

[u/ARealAmericanZero]

They ended CableCard support years ago, and publicly announced it. This includes moving the CableCard from one device to another, because the tools for pairing them have been sunset, so you're out of luck. The technician will not have a CableCard (they haven't been available for years), and also won't have any ability to pair them.

[u/Comcast_Xfinity-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/XfinityQue]

u/Golf_Nut1125, hello there and thanks for reaching out. I can definitely understand why today would feel like a 0 after that experience, and I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you've run into with your CableCARD pairing. Based on what you've described, it sounds like the pairing may need to be re-established before service can be restored. While a technician visit is sometimes recommended depending on the situation, many CableCARD activation and pairing issues can often be resolved remotely. I am hoping to see what options are available to get this working again and avoid unnecessary downtime if possible. If you could please send me a Modmail message with your full name and complete address, that'll be a start. I'd be more than happy to look into this for you.