I have a friend who has a new Samsung 42 flat. He has been battling TWC in Houston to get the TV to accept the Motorola cable card.

Problem is they have given him no less than 6 cards, and he cannot get the TV to receive premium channels with the card inserted.

He contacts them and they tell him to get a new card. The TV has latest firmware. When he inserts the card it tells him to contact TWC to activate. He does that they say they activate it and nothing happens as far as the premiums. He can although receive the non premium channels once the card is inserted/activated.

Does anyone know what is happening and or a fix? He has been in contact with: SAmsung, Motorolla and TWC all levels of support and corporate.

Please advise!

Cable Cards Suck! We are recomending to all our clients not to use them. You don't have access to PPV or the cable co. guide with it.

Thanks and he realizes that but the custom cabinet is buuilt and TV in place.

He is SOL. Did he install it himself, or did a custom installer?

I'm sorry to tell you this, but Greg C is right.

Cable boxes have been around for decades and the manufacturers are just now getting them right. Cable cards were practically forced on the cable companies by the FCC and cable companies don't respond well to being forced. Their answer to the FCC's demand is to have Motorola (in my area of the Mid-West anyway) produce the first-generation of ONE-WAY cable cards. Read that last sentence carefully, three things should scare you about it: Motorola, first-generation, & ONE-WAY.

Motorola makes plenty of great products, but they have also produced some doozies along the way, like the first-generation high-def cable boxes, man they SUCKED! And even though they have worked most of the bugs out of them, always add a back-up U.P.S. to them to ensure top reliability.

First-generation, simply stated, means good for problems. Think about the first generation of any technology, its rarely works as planned.

And the third thing is a big problem; one-way cards can not receive video-on-demand, interactive program guides and other services that require two-way signals. These are features that people want and cable boxes have finally come around to deliver these services properly.

Heck, I failed to mention DVR services. Can't get that from card, at least not for a long time. DVR is the only reason I even use a cable box, it frees me from worrying about when my favorite shows come on.

Finally, I find it hard to believe that there is no way for you to hide the cable box in a remote location and feed the signals to the set. Are there any other components hooked up to this set, DVD player, VCR, computer, etc…; where are they hidden? No offense, but if you had a custom-built cabinet for the TV set but failed to pre-wire or plan for future equipment upgrades, you may want to re-evaluate the way you set up systems.

The conclusion I have been telling dealers ever since cable cards came out is simple. Cable cards are a great idea, with not-so-great execution. There are many bugs to be worked out, and it will take some time. Don’t promise your customers that this is a great solution, unless you like crying yourself to sleep at night. The cable companies don’t like the cards, and as long as they offer them, even if they don’t work properly, they claim that they are in compliance. They will gladly offer your client a cable box, which will give the customer more options and it will probably work.

Good luck

There is at least one DVR from Sony out there that supports cable cards and a guide - all with no extra subscription to the cable company. However it does have that lovely "first-generation" status - the guide is based on TVGOS (TV Guide On Screen) which for many people is more than slightly less than reliable. :-) And of course no PPV or VOD. And just one tuner. But at least it's not a Scientific Atlanta!

I know this seems an odd request, but does anyone here know where I can **buy** a cable card?

Thanks for all of the answers. No I am not the builder or installer. I am just trying to assist this friend who made this blunder. Another case o flistening to the sales person.

Thanks for all of the answers.

Let me try to actually answer your question and concern, and not lecture you on the merits of the technology. Cable cards, even one way, are great - when they work. Who the F wants a huge HD cable box in the bedroom when we hang a nice LCD on the wall? Ummm, no one. Who the F cares about on demand and the guide when the promise of not having a big cable box in the room to hide is floating around out there? Again, no one.

I have had three Sharp LCDs in my lab and none of them ever worked right with the cable cards. They worked fine for a spell, then comblast did something with the network and poof - there they go. But there is a known issue between the sharp lcds and the cable cards. To the point where we dont sell sharp anymore because of it.

Have done one JVC LCD recently when it worked - and continues to work fine. So that is what we're speccing for cable card jobs now. Having gone around with both the cable company and sharp for the better part of year on this, I know a lot about the issues and this is the first time I have heard of a Sammy not working with one. It could be an isolated issue with your TV. If you have tried 6 cable cards with no luck, then maybe you can get them a different TV to try? Otherwise, I would say be happy that the digital channels are working on it. Are the HD channels also working? It sounds like the premium movie channels are the only ones that arent. Tell him he's lucky and be happy he doesn't have a big cable box to hide in order to watch the HD and digital channels.

Good luck.

PS- we now have a clause in our contract that states we are not responsible for cable cards working properly.

Closet, basement, attic... There must be a solution...

Email me I can help.

Did a Panasonic with a cable card from Comcast, nothing but problems for the last few months. Picture dropping, sound cutting in and out. All kinds of BS that is just not cool.

I actually called Comcast and within a minute of talking to their "phone tech", they said they would send somebody out. I did not even have to beg. I have pleaded, bitched, begged, and whined for help with previous problems and nobody would show up even if we offered to pay them.

When they send somebody right out you there is a serious problem on their end.

Oh yeah, there are still problems with this project. Think I will go through this again in the near future, I think not. We did run conduit from a hidden location so at least we have a fix when the cable company finally admits the card is a POS.

Thanks.. he has had 2 different TV's. Started with Sony, 2 of them, and then the Samsung.

The service providor is Time Warner Cable, Houston, Texas.