Can not record certain channels anymore (Huntsville: moving, area, business)

[MisterEd51]

I have Comcast Cable in Huntsville. Starting this week recording on certain channels is no longer allowed. Some of these channels are:

• Fox News Channel
• CNN
• HLN
• MSNBC
• CNBC
• Fox Business

The same is true for many sports channels. You can watch but not record them.

A Google search shows this has happened already in other parts of the United States over the last several years. Has anyone else in the Huntsville area have this happen to them? Does anyone know why this is happening?

Update: Restarting my DVR did not solve the problem. Calling them and having their system send a system restart command did fix the problem. Spoke too soon. The DVR menu crashed. I hope this is just a temporary problem.

Another problem is that I have a TV tuner on one of my computers. It has a CableCard It had been working fine for over 8 years now. As of few weeks ago it will no longer tune to any channel. I am waiting to hear back from Comcast. I am paying an outlet fee to Comcast for this tuner to be used so if they are not going to allow it to work then they need to remove this charge.

[writerwife]

I haven't had a dvr in a while now but a few yrs back (I was on Satellite at the time) it never allowed me to record any news programs or the weather channel. I just figured it was because it was a constantly moving thing and no one was allowed.

[dijkstra]

Originally Posted by MisterEd51

I have Comcast Cable in Huntsville. Starting this week recording on certain channels is no longer allowed. Some of these channels are:

• Fox News Channel
• CNN
• HLN
• MSNBC
• CNBC
• Fox Business

The same is true for many sports channels. You can watch but not record them.

A Google search shows this has happened already in other parts of the United States over the last several years. Has anyone else in the Huntsville area have this happen to them? Does anyone know why this is happening?

Update: Restarting my DVR did not solve the problem. Calling them and having their system send a system restart command did fix the problem. Spoke too soon. The DVR menu crashed. I hope this is just a temporary problem.

Another problem is that I have a TV tuner on one of my computers. It has a CableCard It had been working fine for over 8 years now. As of few weeks ago it will no longer tune to any channel. I am waiting to hear back from Comcast. I am paying an outlet fee to Comcast for this tuner to be used so if they are not going to allow it to work then they need to remove this charge.

It sounds like you may have had a lightening strike or power surge if you have two devices connected to the same source and they went out in a relatively close time period. Probably damaged capacitors. Sometimes they will somewhat work for a short period after a surge and then finally burn out. You could pull your Tuner card in your computer and look for capacitors with a domed swollen top. That is a dead giveaway that they have overheated and burned out.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by writerwife

I haven't had a dvr in a while now but a few yrs back (I was on Satellite at the time) it never allowed me to record any news programs or the weather channel. I just figured it was because it was a constantly moving thing and no one was allowed.

I've been a Dish subscriber for several years now and have never had an issue with recording anything they carry. That said, I've not tried since MisterEd's recent post. In fact, there are many programs on the news channels I watch that encourage recording for later viewing.

[MisterEd51]

I got the impression when I called them yesterday that they were doing some kind of work on their system. I thought everything was back to normal until last night. My DVR was supposed to record 3 programs last night:

• 7:00pm 911
• 8:00pm NCIS
• 9:00pm NCIS: Hawaii

I usually don't start watching these programs until well after they start so I can skip through the commercials. At 8:20pm I tried to watch 911. The recording stopped after only 16 minutes. I checked the DVR scheduling and to my shock there was nothing at all scheduled to record any more. Note I can schedule programs up to 13 days in advance. In the menu I selected sync DVR. After that the program record scheduler was returned to normal. Since I did this before 9:00pm NCIS: Hawaii was recorded. I had to wait until the next day to watch the programs 911 and NCIS because that was when they would be available to watch On Demand from their respective networks.

Everything seems to be back to normal now. I only wish they would contact their customers when they are working on their system so we could plan accordingly. BTW, when I called them yesterday there was a longer than normal wait time. That was probably because there was a lot of people calling with the same complaint I had.

[GrumpyCat]

Dish Hopper 2 with external OTA tuner has no trouble recording local channels on my non-dish antenna.

Sadly there is almost nothing worth recording.