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I spent another 1.5 hours this morning on the phone with Cox after the guy who came to “fix” my cable card left. After the first time I got off the phone today I really wish I had the ability to record the conversation.

When I ordered services had they specifically told me which channels I would not be able to receive, I would have been more friendly of a customer to deal with. My number one complaint about Cox Customer Support, Technical Support, and Sales, is the complete lack of education they receive for the products they offer. It really equates to false advertising in that they offer X HD channels, of which you have to pay an extra added premium for use of their proprietary hardware and technology.

Their basic explanation today about why I do not receive certain HD channels is as follows; The channels are being broadcast using digital video switching and the cable card technology does not work with it. That’s fine. Why are you using that technology for those 8 channels while the other 300 waste “valuable bandwidth”? They chose to make these 8 specifically not work with the cable card technology they offer for HD programming they retransmit. The cable company is severely guilty of not reallocating their limited bandwidth appropriately. The cable industry is also guilty of developing antiquated technology to blame their shortcomings on, eg cable card.Why of course the cable company decides to discriminate against users of consumer electronics such as the TiVo has everything to do with lock-in and profits with their hardware.

Let’s take a look at the hardware offered by most cable companies. The prices I’m using are Cox’s for example. The cable card only costs $1.99/month plus $44.95 installation.( I managed to get them to waive this absurd charge after the fact.) Finally their DVR costs $12 or more plus install, and a regular digital box $5-7 not including installation fee. So I did manage to get the Billing Supervisor to give me a one-time coutesy credit of $39 and change for the difference in rental cost of a cable card and cable box over a year. He refused to provide the difference in cable card and DVR, which would have been more substantial and gratifying. Another partial win for me nonetheless.

I like the TiVo. I consider mine an investment in my TV watching habits as there was an upfront cost for the device and monthly service. I hate commercials, TiVo lets me skip easily. Comcast even started using TiVo software for their customers, albeit on a digital cable box platform. I’m sure they get to watch for example CNN HD, Food Network HD, and History HD and record it all just fine. Cox just wants to force it’s customers into renting their expensive and useless hardware. For any standard definition channel the cable card is able to receive it should also be able to receive the high definition version as well at no extra cost.

With the transition to Digital Television approaching quickly many of the kinks are still in the system. The more kinks in Cox’s system the more profitable they are with their fees and expanded service tiers. Maybe they would be more profitable if they just made something that worked and the customers came to them because of the quality of service not because they are the only game in town. I can only hope someone finds this post and it helps them with their service provider.