I have 4 cable cards and the problem with the technology is...
1) The cable companies act like they know nothing about them. 2) It's like pulling teeth to get one from your cable operator 3) They're ridiculously hard to configure. Why, I dunno, but they are. And for some reason it's forbidden to install a cable card yourself. My cable company required several visits to my house before they found units that worked in my equipment. And that didn't include the hours to days it took to program the cards after installation. I wouldn't recommend a cable card installation to my worst enemy. 4) If you have more than 2 they make it cost prohibitive, compared to 'renting' the cable company's equipment, plus you can't use on demand. And if the case of using them with Tivo HD, you can't scan for available channels being offered by your cable company and instead must add your channels manually. It's like the gift that keeps on giving.
Anyway, if it weren't for Tivo HD, I probably would have never used cable cards. I've tried practically every DVR at one time or another, and ended up coming back to Tivo. It's simply the best DVR out there. And I tollerated the cable card ordeal simply because I wanted to use Tivo HD and NOT have and extra box. Should I ever move on to something else, it's doubtful I'll ever do anything releated to cable cards again.
But anyway, it was a good idea on paper that got messed up in implementation and support. Cable companies really want nothing to do with the technology.
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I have 4 cable cards and the problem with the technology is...
1) The cable companies act like they know nothing about them.
2) It's like pulling teeth to get one from your cable operator
3) They're ridiculously hard to configure. Why, I dunno, but they are. And for some reason it's forbidden to install a cable card yourself. My cable company required several visits to my house before they found units that worked in my equipment. And that didn't include the hours to days it took to program the cards after installation. I wouldn't recommend a cable card installation to my worst enemy.
4) If you have more than 2 they make it cost prohibitive, compared to 'renting' the cable company's equipment, plus you can't use on demand. And if the case of using them with Tivo HD, you can't scan for available channels being offered by your cable company and instead must add your channels manually. It's like the gift that keeps on giving.
Anyway, if it weren't for Tivo HD, I probably would have never used cable cards. I've tried practically every DVR at one time or another, and ended up coming back to Tivo. It's simply the best DVR out there. And I tollerated the cable card ordeal simply because I wanted to use Tivo HD and NOT have and extra box. Should I ever move on to something else, it's doubtful I'll ever do anything releated to cable cards again.
But anyway, it was a good idea on paper that got messed up in implementation and support. Cable companies really want nothing to do with the technology.