SDV channels down?

[Tivoman44]

Has anyone noticed that the HD SDV channels are not working right now?  For things like CNN HD and Fox News HD, and MLB HD it says Channel temp unavaliable.  My tuning adaptor is hooked up and the green light is on.

[TiVo HD XL]

Has anyone noticed that the HD SDV channels are not working right now?  For things like CNN HD and Fox News HD, and MLB HD it says Channel temp unavaliable.  My tuning adaptor is hooked up and the green light is on.

There's some other posts on here about the same subject. Here's my general response:

Yes. I have a TiVo with cable cards and I thought the two might be related but it sounds like this also happens with their DVR. I get a lot of "This channel is temporarily anavailable..." on channels 568, 544, and 520. The SD channels seem to always work. I think it may have to do with their poorly implemented switched digital video. I hardly ever get the science channel (520) anymore and when I do it'll run for awhile then the picture will freeze and I change the channel then change it back and get the temp unavail message again. I called TWC support and of course some idiot answered the phone and tried to send a signal to restart the TiVo box (which is obviously not possible), then tried to schedule a truck roll to fix the TiVo and also suggested that I take my TiVo (that I paid for) to a TWC service center and exchange it for a "new" box. Where do they get these people from? I wish there was an alternative to TWC because I would definitely abandon their crap for service they don't provide.

Honestly, with the riff raff they have answering phones I'm not sure there's much hope. A good customer service rep would tell you that they are having issues with SDV signals instead of restarting your box remotely then 20 minutes later scheduling a truck roll for some intermittant problem that can't be fixed in your home but that applies to many people within the viewing area. I'm not sure what to tell these folks when I talk to them. The ones who half-way know what they are talking about seem to be full of it and the rest are truck roll scheduling robots.

[dicktwi]

I had the same problem with only intermittently receiving the SDV channels and initally balked at the suggestion to have a tech come out, but finally gave in.  The tech came out and actually seemed competent.  He found a poor connection where the inside line connected to the outside line.  Since his repair, I've had absolutely zero problems with receiving the high def SDV channels.  Not even one missed dvr recording where before I had 2 or 3 a week.  It seemed like a miracle that a TWC technician actually fixed something!!!

[TiVo HD XL]

I had the same problem with only intermittently receiving the SDV channels and initally balked at the suggestion to have a tech come out, but finally gave in.  The tech came out and actually seemed competent.  He found a poor connection where the inside line connected to the outside line.  Since his repair, I've had absolutely zero problems with receiving the high def SDV channels.  Not even one missed dvr recording where before I had 2 or 3 a week.  It seemed like a miracle that a TWC technician actually fixed something!!!

Well I called TWC just now and lucked out and got a CSR who actually hadn't heard of this problem but was smart enough to go talk to someone else right away without me having to suggest she do so multiple times and came back to the phone and indicated that there were others having the same problem and that a tech would be out working on the main line tomorrow out here where I am and didn't need to enter my home but would give me a call after the problem was solved.

She first said it may be a weak connection issue but a weak connection / weak signal can be either inside or outside the home. Last time the techs were in my home less than a week ago their supervisor who was also there told me I had a "very" strong signal so I doubt it's anything on the inside.

[LoadStar]

The problem is that there are two separate signal levels, and unless you know what you're looking for or what to ask,  the two can get confused.

The first is your downstream signal levels, or the signal coming into your home. The second is the upstream signal level, or the level at which the equipment inside your home determines that it has to transmit at in order to be heard.

When they say the signal level is strong, that's probably the downstream signal level; downstream signal determines how good your picture is, for instance. Upstream, it might be somewhat counter-intuitive, but you actually don't want a strong signal... a strong upstream signal level means your equipment has determined based on line conditions and what not that it has to pretty much shout its head off in order to be "heard" by the head-end.

The problem with SDV is that it puts more emphasis than ever before on the upstream signal level and signal quality. Before SDV, you could get by with a marginal upstream signal quality, because all your equipment in the home had to do was just tune to the right channel... it didn't have to send anything back to the head-end to tune the channel. Now, it's all different. If you want to tune to a SDV channel, your equipment has to be able to successfully transmit a request to the head-end to begin transmitting the channel.

If you're having frequent issues with not being able to tune to SDV channels, get a technician out to check the upstream signal levels and SNR level.

[TiVo HD XL]

OK so the technician came and after thrashing around for a while (of course) someone on the phone told him the tuning adapter needs to plugged into USB port number 1 (the one on top) because the USB port on the bottom of the TiVo HD can only handle two-way communication with only one of the two s-cards in it not both. So that USB cable got plugged into the top USB port instead of the bottom one then everything was restarted and the problem seems to have gone away for now at least. So all of this over a friggin' USB port? It does not even say that the cable needs to be plugged into the top port in the instructions. In fact, the instructions I've got say that you can use either one. Who knows, the problem was intermittant so maybe it'll happen again at some point.

[Klankster]

The problem is that there are two separate signal levels, and unless you know what you're looking for or what to ask,  the two can get confused.

Can you tell us where to find this information in the diagnostics?  I'd sure like to see what my level is.  Thanks!

[LoadStar]

OK so the technician came and after thrashing around for a while (of course) someone on the phone told him the tuning adapter needs to plugged into USB port number 1 (the one on top) because the USB port on the bottom of the TiVo HD can only handle two-way communication with only one of the two s-cards in it not both. So that USB cable got plugged into the top USB port instead of the bottom one then everything was restarted and the problem seems to have gone away for now at least. So all of this over a friggin' USB port? It does not even say that the cable needs to be plugged into the top port in the instructions. In fact, the instructions I've got say that you can use either one. Who knows, the problem was intermittant so maybe it'll happen again at some point.

This is directly opposite the forum post that I found on the TiVo Community Forums, that said that the _bottom_ USB port was the one that needed to be used. (I did mention this post to the techs that came out and did my install.)

In the end, I don't think it matters which is used; I think it's simply the act of removing it from one port and plugging it into another that gets it to work.

[LoadStar]

Can you tell us where to find this information in the diagnostics?  I'd sure like to see what my level is.  Thanks!

Alas, no - I no longer have a Time Warner cable box. I switched to TiVo last weekend.

[gparris]

Has anyone noticed that the HD SDV channels are not working right now?  For things like CNN HD and Fox News HD, and MLB HD it says Channel temp unavaliable.  My tuning adaptor is hooked up and the green light is on.

Tonight, HDNET, HDNET Movies, Sci-Fi HD, DisneyHD and many others told me that these were "not available, try again later"
...glad I wasn't in the mood to watch them that bad, eh?:mad:

[LoadStar]

Tonight, HDNET, HDNET Movies, Sci-Fi HD, DisneyHD and many others told me that these were "not available, try again later"
...glad I wasn't in the mood to watch them that bad, eh?:mad:

I've been watching SDV channels all night, and no issues here.

Hate to sound like a TWC phone rep, but it's not likely a system-wide issue.

[gparris]

No, it's the nature of SDV, sometimes it just stinks to have issues in your specific area (or to have TWC).

-Thanks for the info.:wave:

[leprechaunshawn]

I was having problems last night with pixelating and audio issues.  The problems were on WMLW while I was watching the Brewers game and on CSI NY on 505.  This seems to happen a lot to me and many shows that I try to watch or DVR are seriously unwatchable.  I've been thru multiple cable boxes and had my main cable line replaced once and they still cannot figure it out.

[gparris]

Sometimes it is a box related issue or connections when the SDV channels aren't available, too.
In our household, we have more than one DVR box-the other DVRs behaved fine, so it could be just the box and its connections, but SDV can be tricky like that.
My HT location (the DVR that malfunctioned) is the most viewed and used, so I might just swap the boxes around if it keeps occurring.

It would have been better had TWC gone a different route to increase channel capacity for more HD availablity than SDV, but it didn't, unfortunately.
Other TWC locations, as well as other cable companies, are going mostly if not all-digital, requiring boxes to increase capacity, one method towards that effort, but it is not the only method, of course.

It is my understanding that if you are a satellite customer, as well as a FIOSTV or U-Verse subscriber, you have to have a box for every TV, so cable's ability to avoid a box for those with analogue TVs, is a selling point, but a weak one, IMO.

Satellite and other non-cable services aforementioned seem to  be doing fine with boxes for every TV and now, with TV reception becoming all-digital, a convertor box (unless the set is so equipped) will be necessary, anyway.
-So cable boxes, or any box, for that matter, unless the set is cablecard ready, are a must for now and the future.

So (maybe) those other locations that cable exists that are doing boxes-only (or very limited analogue channels) have figured it out and made the decisions they made to increase capacity for HD channels by going the route they have taken.