Channels grey in guide and can't record

[durl]

I have subscribed to the Sports Pack for about 10 years because that puts me in FSN Ohio and FSN Cincinnati markets, allowing me to watch Reds games. I've experienced ZERO problems with the service, including the HD feeds until about a week or so ago. I noticed that 10 "-1" RSN feeds were greyed out in my guide when they never were before. Two of them are FSN Ohio and Cincinnati. The others are from various places around the country, from Bay Area and Colorado to Houston and Indiana.

I can WATCH games on FSN Cincinnati (when a game is on, naturally) but when I press the Record button, I get the message "your receiver is not authorized to record this program." I have the same problem on both the HR20 and HR21. Only channels in the 600s are affected, and while all the affected channels are "-1" HD feeds, not all "-1" channels are greyed out. For kicks, I went to Favorites and told it to select Channels I receive. The 10 grey channels did NOT appear in the Guide. That's odd because I'm paying for them.

I've done reboots, redone satellite setup, re-authorized service, reprogrammed the access card, refreshed services online, checked all connections, and swapped out BBCs but nothing works. Several calls to customer service haven't helped.

Can anyone please shed some light on what might be wrong and how it can be corrected? I really want to be able to record ball games. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Zynergi]

aside from the stations preventing them to be recorded, I would Call D* and see what they can do.

 

[durl]

Well, I've called 3 different times.

1 - CSR told me that Sports Pack customers can't watch ANY professional sports, including your home region, unless they buy that particular sport's package. (Obviously a recent hire.)

2 - Supervisor told me that MLB Extra Innings can "take over" a channel and that prevents viewers from recording it although they can still watch the game. I asked when that policy change took place since I was able to record a game the previous week. He didn't have an answer for that.

3 - CSR said that it's a known HDMI cable problem. Switch to component video and reset the receiver. That didn't work, either. No other suggestions were given. Pretty much an "oh, well..." thing.

In 10 years, I've never had to keep calling for anything. Is there a specific department I should ask for or some type of "secret code phrase" that will get me to someone higher up?

 

[DodgerKing]

Talk to a technician, not a CSR.

 

[drx6]

how do you make that request?

 

[DodgerKing]

how do you make that request?

When you call and the automated response ask what you need, simply say "Technical Support"

 

[durl]

I thought I'd post a quick update.

Last night, the greyed-out channels are now available in the guide and I can record them. I've got no explanation of how this got corrected. I did activate a new receiver a couple of nights ago but it seems odd that that would fix the problem.

 

[jdspencer]

My guess is that when you activated a new receiver, they re-authorized all of your receivers. Therefore, everything now works as it should.

 

[Jimbo]

I thought I'd post a quick update.

Last night, the greyed-out channels are now available in the guide and I can record them. I've got no explanation of how this got corrected. I did activate a new receiver a couple of nights ago but it seems odd that that would fix the problem.

My guess is that when you activated a new receiver, they re-authorized all of your receivers. Therefore, everything now works as it should.

durl,
When you activated the rec's you made a call to them or did it online ?
If you called in, I can see where they would have possibly caught thier error and corrected it while doing your authorization.

btw, you mentioned in an earlier post that you "reprogrammed the access card," ...
Interesting, how'd you manage to do that
just kidding, I know thats not exactly what you meant

Jimbo

 

[durl]

Jimbo,

I activated the receiver over the phone. The rep didn't discuss anything outside of activating my new receiver.

I just thought it was unusual that activating a receiver would correct my problem. I had reauthorized service several times online and even asked a CSR to do the same.

And "reprogrammed the access card" wasn't the proper description, no doubt. I found the idea on a website and can't remember the correct term. Would it be a "refresh?"