Bright House CableCARD customers lose four HD channels, offered an HD DVR instead
by Darren Murph 
posted Feb 8th 2008 at 10:41AM
Hey, Bright House CableCARD customers -- remember those eight HD channels that popped online back in September? Turns out, you were only supposed to receive half of 'em, and reportedly, four have actually been pulled after five newcomers were added in late January. According to Arthur Orduna, the senior vice president of product for BHN, it had decided to "not to deliver those channels [HGTV HD, TBS HD, The History Channel HD and Food Network HD] to CableCard customers" as it prepared for switched digital video, and apparently, the cable company is now allowing these very subscribers to trade their beloved CableCARD in for a ho hum HD DVR. Supposedly, this stopgap will enable customers to view the entire HD lineup while they wait for an "external adapter" to be rolled out which will allow CableCARD-ready TiVos to play nice with SDV. Sounds like a pretty complicated mess from here -- anyone down in the Sunshine state dealing with this here dilemma?[Thanks, Celly and David]
Filed under: Industry, DVRs, Set-top boxes, Tuners, Cable
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Andrew @ Feb 8th 2008 11:21AM
I am in Orlando with a TiVo HD with one M-Card CableCard installed. I was disappointed when I did not get the new HD channels on February 1, 2008 and even more disappointed when I LOST channels!
There seems to be NO technical reason that BrightHouse is doing this. It is clearly a move to screw TiVo users and force them to use the terrible cable company provided DVR...
Etan Horowitz @ Feb 8th 2008 11:26AM
Here's the full story on the BHN/CableCard situation:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-cable0808feb08,0,6368421.story
Big Dave @ Feb 8th 2008 11:28AM
Yes, they say there weren't aware the impact this would have but they are going to review their changes and possible give us all the HD channels, until they deploy SDV at that point the Tivo SDV dongle should be available.
The Fuzz 53 @ Feb 8th 2008 12:05PM
This is friggin ridiculous and shows exactly why people have so much disdain for cable companies. Wasn't the whole point of CABLEcard so that people wouldn't have to lease these garbage STBs?
Chris @ Feb 8th 2008 12:43PM
The cable companies are required to support CableCARDs, because they would not do it voluntarily. Are they within their rights to deny some channels to CableCARD users while providing those channels to set-top-box users? Does partial support count as "support"? I think that they should be required to provide the same channels to STB and CC customers. Otherwise, what's the point?
Branden @ Feb 8th 2008 1:01PM
Makes me glad that I dumped Brighthouse for Fios!
WGW @ Feb 8th 2008 9:12PM
Read the thread at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=383361 to see how we are "dealing with this here dilemma". I believe BHN CF has been surprised by the speed and volume of the negative PR that has been generated. They would probably not be in this situation if the reason for the sudden limitation was technical, i.e. - they had deployed SDV on Februrary 1. We could live with that until the SDV adapter appeared later this year. Instead, the sudden limitation is due to a policy decision that primarily affected TiVo owners. And, when it was discovered the policy didn't apply to BHN equipment (some which use an internal CableCARD), that just made us mad.
Larry @ Feb 8th 2008 2:01PM
I hope Ben brings this up in the next podcast. What a bad move by a cable provider.
Time Warner Bites @ Feb 8th 2008 5:51PM
This is the same crap Time Warner customers in Hawaii have to put up with. Here's hoping that SDV dongle for CableCards arrives soon.
Mike @ Feb 8th 2008 8:08PM
"The two TiVo models that use CableCards are not compatible with switched digital video channels, but TiVo and the cable industry are developing an external adapter to fix the problem. Orduna said the adapter is expected to be released this year and Bright House will continue to provide free HD DVR boxes to these customers until that happens."
Sounds to me like this is TIVO's fault kids!
I live in Orlando and have the Brighthouse HD-DVR, and let me tell you, I'm loving these new HD channels. I didn't know these were using switched video already, but, whatever it takes to get new HD.
Brighthouse needs to compete with DirecTV, so, excuse them for leaving a few hundred people in orlando in the dust...but.. you can't blame them for wanting to use new technology.
WGW @ Feb 8th 2008 9:13PM
Read the earlier posts, and the Sentinel article. BHN has NOT enabled SDV. Our loss of HD is not for technical reasons, it's because someone in the BHN organization decided to disable them in preparation for deploying SDV later this year.
And it's not a TiVo problem, it is a CableCARD problem. It affects anyone using CableCARDs whether in a TV, a media PC, or a TiVo. It is just that TiVo owners rent most of the CableCARDS, and are therefore the most vociferous about it.
Tech @ Apr 30th 2008 12:01PM
First of all, as a BHN employee. Let me just say, TiVo needs to upgrade their software in order for the M card (Multi-Stream) to work. BHN also expanded their bandwidth for Road Runner. We are now running 15x2 Mbps. I have read alot of the complaints about BHN. Alot of the problems are coming from the ACTUAL cable lines in your homes. Pixellation is caused by damaged lines, bad fittings, or low signal. The 8300 HDC still has a few kinks to be worked out but all in all is a great box. The mystro navigator can do things the passport navigator cannot. For example caller id on your tv. As technology advances so does BHN's equippment, and just as technology has a few kinks so does BHN. Only testing and feedback will work these kinks out. We are still launching new products, but as everything else it takes time. Look foward to seeing some of BHN great new products in the future.... Thank you for your feedback, and more will be appreciated.