I just wanted to say that I received a bare Seagate DB35 in the mail from WeaKnees today, and that the install in my Tivo S3 went very smoothly. I used the bumwine method with a Knoppix boot CD. Everything took about 2 hours (including 90 minutes for the dd). Pay channels (HBO, Starz, etc...) are all coming in fine after the upgrade. Disk copy is the way to go! I now have my original 250 GB drive standing by as a backup if the 750 GB drive ever dies *knocks on wood*.

I had to buy a PCI-SATA card to do the copy because my computer's mobo doesn't support SATA, but that was a nice upgrade to my computer anyways, so I consider that money well spent.

We still don't have an ETA on the 500 GB SATA DB35 drives. We sell many more of the 750s, so we made those our highest priority with Seagate, and they came first.

When will your 500GB upgrade drives be the DB35s (or will they be offered in the DB35 configuration)?

I tried to keep it simple. I told the Comcast tech that my cable cards had been working correctly, but that the premium and digital channels disappeared about a week ago. I did not know why, but some other folks on various Tivo AV forums had had the data id change after their original installation and I was sure that this had happened to my cablecards.

I showed him that I was receiving the premiums on my other cable box and this helped to get the Comcast office to even look at the existing data id numbers - which were different. Yes, I just gave the tech the new numbers. He gave them to the office and they re-entered them and voila - all was fine.

To be honest, I had a very cooperative tech, who could tell that I knew what I was talking about. In fact, when he was leaving, he indicated that Tivo must have changed the data id's because the home office of Comcast would not change them.

He did tell me to write down my data id numbers and that if this happened again to call customer support and have them put me through to the cc folks and tell them that my data id's had changed and have them re-enter them. I would suggest that anybody who has this issue should call their provider and be affirmative and specifically state that they were sure that the data id's had changed - this might avoid a service call.

For the benefit of others, can you tell us what you had to do to talk to the right person? And once you talked to the right person, I assume you just had to give the tech the new data id?

Having this information when the Comcast tech (and TG it was a real Comcast guy and not an independent) made the re-pairing much easier and quicker. I handled the remote and the tech handled the telephone and the Comcast cc folks. The Comcast office cc folks did not really understand why the data numbers would change, but all is well now. Thanks!!

I actually did attempt this by telephone yesterday. But, regular Comcast customer service will not put you in communication with the customer service folks that deal with the cablecards. Pretty darn inefficient and costly customer service approach.

You might consider calling Comcast and telling them that they need to re-pair/re-marry your cards to the host ids. Tell them that your data number has changed. You can find the new number in the "CableCARD Pairing" screen of your TiVo. Have them enter the new number in their records, and we're told that should solve the problem.

Jeff,

I guess that I will advise Comcast that the premiums and digitals simply stopped coming in and that I do not know why - the cable cards must have been defective. If I advise them that the S3 was repaired, there will definitely be a service charge as the S3 is not Comcast equipment.

But, I did not swap cards out. I swapped the hard drive out. So, I assume that a swap out of the hard drive without a full copy of the existing disc image causes the need for a new pairing up of the new host id in Comcast cable systems as the host id is tied some how tied to the hard drive. I understand that there is no uniformity between the cable cards in the USA, but it seems to me that WK needs to advise purchasers of hard drives that a re-pairing of the cable cards might be necessary depending upon the implementation of the cable cards by each individual cable company.

Happy Thanksgiving.

From what we understand, Comcast marries each CableCARD to a specific host id. Each card slot in the TiVo has a separate ID. If you swap the cards around, certain channels might not work properly until the cards are re-paired (re-married) even if the cards have been put back into the correct slot. Similarly, if for some reason the host id changes, then the card has to be married back up to the new host id.

In order to re-marry the cards, the cable company has to send out another signal. In order to re-marry the card, Comcast actually has to have the new data number that is visible in the "CableCARD(tm) Pairing" screen, and that would need to be entered into their records.

If you have trouble, you could simply tell the cable company that the S3 had to be repaired so it would need to have the cards "paired up" (married) again.

That is what I am doing. I certainly hope that there is no charge from Comcast for this service.

Thanks for your response(s). I will let you know what happens.

Stan

Earlier in the day I called Comcast and asked for a cold hit. They advised me that they would have to send a technician out to deal with any cable card issues. I have an appointment for this Wednesday morning.

And, I do understand that, os far, these issues appear to be random with little uniformity between cable service providers. But, it must be likely that it is related to how particular cable companies set up the pairing of their cablecards.

We are indeed aware that some (and for better or worse, very few) people are having issues like yours. Some have been able to solve the problem by calling their cable companies and asking for a cold hit.

Given how infrequent the problem is, we don't yet know for sure what is happening with some cable companies. There is nothing about the software that we are sending that is causing the problem. For example, we use the same software on fully-upgraded units that we sell, yet no customer of a complete unit has had the problem.

As an interim step, I would recommend that you work with Comcast. As we have more information, we will post it and keep everyone apprised.

Well, some HD upgraders are having issues with encryted content and cablecards after hard drive upgrade. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...d.php?t=323639 I was under the impression that this was should not be the case as the cable cards are not supposed to be set to the hard drive, but to the Tivo motherboard itself.

Meanwhile, I have Comcast scheduled to come back out and, likely, reset the cablecards, on Wednesday. That is, unless there is some other interim solution. And my situation seems a bit more confusing as I not only receive no premiums, but no digitals. Luckily, I do have the local HD's via cable and ota as the Patriots play the Packers at one pm today. That is why I am reluctant to just removing the cable cards and reinserting them.

Stan

Michael:

Install is a cinch. And drive is very quiet. My only issue is that my digital and premium channels no longer come in. When I go to any digital and premium channel the initial cablecard screen comes up advising me to contact my cable provider. The cablecard number, host and data infor is shown. By the way, all of my premium channels are checked in the guide.

I have Comcast in Boston.

Suggestions on what to do? Like remove the cablecards or something similar, besides calling Comcast. Maybe it is a simple telephone call to Comcast, but I certainly would not want to have to have another installer appointment to reset cable cards.

Thanks.