8300HDC boxes have no two-way communication:

[LonghornXP]

I couldn't get a good signal at all from DirecTV at my new place in Florida so I had to switch to Bright House Networks. So I had three 8300HDC boxes installed today and it seems that none of them work at all with On Demand content. They all boot up without any issues and all channels (including HD channels) look 100% great. Also all the guide data is available and present and working as expected. The issue is that none of the On Demand content works at all. So I called BHN support and they tell me that none of my boxes have a working two-way signal. The last rep in the digital multimedia department said that the servers refresh once a day at midnight and when this occurs all the boxes will be setup. He said the problem was that I still had an open work order because the phone service was installed just not activated until Monday. It was this work order not being closed that might have delayed everything. Either way he did tell me that all new boxes added to an account won't be fully activated for On Demand etc until midnight.

So my question is what is the real issue on this. Do these boxes have any known issues or do I just have to wait until midnight as told. Also all of these boxes have multistream cable cards installed in them so I'm worried this might be the issue.

[stevenl]

they also run the new beta software its horrible. What a hunk of junk those boxes are Fucking FCC and their shitty mandates

I haven't heard about on-demand or 2-way services not working. It should work right away. I think the tech was blowing you off because he didnt want to fix the issue or figure it out, id recommend calling for a service call if its not working by tomorrow.

EDIT: You said the person on the phone. Thats total Bullshit, there is nothing special that needs to refresh at midnight for the services to work (least not in orlando area)

Sometimes those boxs if not provisioned right at the warehouse will have problems if the "card" inside is not paired properly to the box your two way services and premium services want work.

[jcarrera]

steven, the FCC didn't write the software that doesn't work!! That was done by either subcontractors to the cable companies or by their suppliers. In either case, the cable company is responsible...either their subcontractor failed and was not corrected by the cable co, or the cable co. selected a defective product to provide without checking it out.

Could it be that the cable companies don't want it to work well?

[Khandurian]

Steve hit the nail on the head. If you are unable to view PPV or On demand, the card is not married to the box. Call back, and have a tech come out with another one. If I was at work, I would get my notes out and tell you how to check to see if the card is married to the box.

As for them saying that the box doesn't support 2 way communications... Uh... What?

[LonghornXP]

Just an update....All of my premium channels are now working again without doing anything except waiting. Also unlike before the premiums On Demand channels (ie HBO On Demand, Showtime On Demand etc) now show the list of available programs instead of the press the "B" button to order this service.

Beyond the above nothing On Demand will play at all without getting the timeout error (ie error 1112). Also the cablecard diag screens (press and hold select until mail light flashes and press info) show that the cablecard is indeed married to the host unit (ie the box itself) and is working fine. Beyond that the cablecard diag screens just say "none yet" under the IP address section.

[iceturkee]

gee, longhorn, back in our fair state with no verizon fios or directv, i do hope you survive!!

[LonghornXP]

gee, longhorn, back in our fair state with no verizon fios or directv, i do hope you survive!!

Please don't remind me again okay!

I just got in contact with a network operations manager finally who informed me that this is a system wide current issue and has been for the last 16 hours but its very close to being fixed. The issue is with "just" the 4250HDC and the 8300HDC boxes. I'm posting a list below of the problems they are having with them.

1. All two-way communication from the set-top box with the headend/hub has been lost for nearly all the boxes presenting issues.

2. All VOD programming isn't working because of issue number one above. Most customers will get a timeout error 1112 when trying to play any content assuming they can access the list of content of course.

3. Many customers have lost "all" features of their boxes including "all" channels and the program guide as well. It appears as a dead box to the consumer.

4. Beyond the above many customers have lost some or all of these specific services. Analog channels (ie digital channels 2-99 on these specific boxes), digital channels (all channels above 99), HD channels, VOD access and DVR Service.

In my case this issue has caused me to lose all VOD playback ability (via no two-way communication), all my premium channels including HBO HD and Showtime HD. Beyond the above my boxes work for recording shows and watching all other channels beyond the premiums including all HD channels.

I hope this now gives a better overview of my issues and for anyone reading this thread who is having these issues with these specific boxes just hold on a bit longer as they are fixing these issues.

[jcarrera]

Will they give you a credit for the lost service you did not receive?

[LonghornXP]

Will they give you a credit for the lost service you did not receive?

So far its about 25 bucks but I doubt I'd get more.

[jcarrera]

Well, I have to give them credit (haha) for that.