I bought a new TV today. I got home, hooked up my playstation and the cable box, and got settled in for some new-tv goodness. Playstation fired up fine, found the new HDMI connection, and started pumping out in 1080p glory.
The cable box, however, is a different story. It is a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD DVR from Time Warner (who sucks, royally).
I plugged an HDMI cable into the HDMI port, only to find that nothing happened (the projector was plugged in via component). A couple reboots later, and I decided to call TWC.
First call, the lady tells me to check my connections. Did that, still nothing. Then I asked her if the HDMI port on my box was active, as I had heard a couple things about certain firmware revisions shutting off the HDMI output. At this point, she says ‘let me remotely check if your HDMI is active.’ This surprised me, as I knew that they could do resets and the like remotely, but turning on\off a port? Seems a bit big brotherish for my tastes.
Anyway, about five minutes later, she said ‘your box is not provisioned for HDMI.’ After another pause, I decided to ask ‘can you provision it?’ – I was a bit peeved – I mean, really lady, c’mon. I tell you that I can’t connect an HD cable box via HDMI, and you say ‘your box is not provisioned for HDMI…’ – would it not be a bit helpful to tell me HOW to get it provisioned?
Anyway, that answer came another five minutes later:
‘Take your box into a customer service center or call your local support number and ask for an HD-ready box.’
I think that pretty much speaks for itself. File this under the ‘we have contempt for our customers’ department.
Oh AT&T, please bring us U-Verse in North Charlotte.