BHN CableCARDS and TiVo

[bdraw]

We all know that although we are in a Bright house area and not a Time Warner Cable area, some ties still remain between the two companies, lets hope this isn't one of them.

A few Time Warner area's are refusing to support any other CableCARD device other than TVs which is terrible news for anyone like myself who really wants a Series 3 HD TiVo.

I would hope that considering I am currently a DIRECTV subscriber and supporting the Series 3 would mean gaining a customer they would support it, but who knows.

I know Bryan has contacts over at BHN and the GM posts here.

I would love to know if BHN is going to support the Series 3 TiVo when I buy one.

[Bschneider]

From the GM at BHN


1) BHN will NOT "support" Tivo Series 3, in that if it doesn't work or
fails, it's the customer's responsibility to engage with Tivo, not ours.
We also will not downlink data to provide Tivo's guide data, software
updates, etc.

2) That said, CableCARD's were always designed to be "host" agnostic,
and anticipated development of DVR's, etc., beyond just display devices.
I expect we will lease CableCARDs for Tivo's just like we do for TV's,
and will even anticipate increased demand. If it functions like the
display devices were supposed to, then we'll treat them just like we
would treat a CableCARD TV. But not "support" it.

Note: I don't have any visibility to Tivo's Digital Rights Management
agreements with the content owners, so that might muck up the works if
they start fighting.

[tampahank]

I would have to echo what was mentioned in the note from the "GM" (Greg, I assume?).

Essentially, alot of MSOs are trying to stay as hands off as possible. The Tivo tries to do alot more than just a TV does, but at the same time, when a customer's TV has a problem with a cable-card and requires a firmware upgrade, the customer is responsible with acquiring the upgrade. An MSO is only going to support and upgrade THEIR equipment (ie BHN's boxes), not someone else's. Basically, if your Tivo pukes over a BHN cable-card, it's your problem.

As for DRM.. I can't see Tivo NOT adhering to it. They're begging to be destroyed (and they've been so close to destruction so many times.. I don't think a company with a neat product would TRY to have it happen) if they don't. The concept of copy anytime, copy once, copy never is so simple it has become a standard. Let's hope Tivo plays along with the rest of the industry in that respect, as well. (I'm betting they do)

[sbiller]

I believe it is mandatory that they support TiVo series 3 since the S3 is cablecard certfied.

Does anyone know what the monthly fee BHN charges for the cablecard? The S3 requires qty 2 so I would like to do a cost comparison especially with the $199 transfer to lifetime that TiVo is offering on the S3.

[Jodeus]

Cablecard is $2.95/month at BHN.

-Jody

[bdraw]

Thanks, BHN is scheduled to come out Tuesday to install them in my new Series 3 TiVo which so far works great OTA.