AVS › AVS Forum › Video Components › Home Theater Computers › Problem with getting all channels
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Problem with getting all channels

post #1 of 23
8/2/12 at 8:05am
Thread Starter 
New to this and I am learning. I bought an HDHomeRun Prime got it installed and the cable card activated. The problem that I am running into is that I am only able to get half of my channels. In my research I found that I am only getting Cox's starter package for channels. I am missing the Advance package portion. Those channels show up as subscription required. I had Cox techs come out and they do not know what is causing this. I have gone through 5 cable cards.

I have set up the tuner to run under Digital Cable and CableCard. On the Digital Cable selection I get only half of my channels (Starter Package) which works fine. Under the CableCard Selection I see all of my channels (both Starter and Advance Packages) but when I view them in the HDViewer there is no sound and the advance channels show up with a black screen and a message states that a subscription is required. I have verified with Cox that everything is setup on their end correctly and that I should be getting all channels. Is there something that I am missing?
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 23
8/2/12 at 9:51am
Do they use SDV in your area? Then you will need a Tuning Adapter. Techs usually know if you need one or not, but they are mostly "trained" to give those out to people with TiVO's.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 23
8/2/12 at 10:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MOrndorff View Post

but when I view them in the HDViewer there is no sound and the advance channels show up with a black screen and a message states that a subscription is required.

What is this HDViewer you mention? Are you refering to SD's quicktv or something else as cox usually puts copyonce on all channels except locals or basic and everything else can only be viewed by windows media center (windows 7 not any prior version) Have you run the Digital Cable Advisor? If you are using media center and have run/passed the dca, it sounds like they haven't provisioned everything to your card correctly. What do the logs say when tuning a channel?
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 23
8/2/12 at 11:15am
I agree it really sounds like they haven't authorized your card properly. Of course they think they have so that sucks. Not surprised though.

Do you plan to use QAM? I'm pretty sure when you set it to use digital cable thats QAM. Can you tell it to only use cablecard?
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 23
8/2/12 at 3:13pm
I'm with signcarver, it sounds like you need to get WMC set up and test it there. Also that the Prime's logs when tuning to the channels would be helpful.

Did you follow all of the instructions to get it set up properly? Sounds like you should run through this first, starting from the "Windows Media Center - Digital Cable Adviser" step.
http://www.silicondust.com/support/hdhomerun/instructions/prime/
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 23
8/3/12 at 10:05am
Thread Starter 
Yes it is SD viewer
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 23
8/3/12 at 10:06am
Thread Starter 
The logs say on the channels that I cannot view subscribed; not-subscribed. It goes back and forth like this on all channels that I cannot get.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 23
8/3/12 at 10:09am
Thread Starter 
I have tried both the CableCard setting and the Digital Card. SD states that the Digital Card should only be used if you do not have a card. The only think that I have not tried is pull the card out and see if I get all the channels.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 23
8/3/12 at 10:23am
What Digital Card? The CableCARD?

If you pull it out you won't get any subscription services tuned, only QAM.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 23
8/3/12 at 12:26pm
Just so we're all on the same page, your cable card (CC) looks like a thick metal credit card and goes in the slot on the HD HomeRun Prime. This is required in order to tune all your subscribed channels. There is no other card involved (Digital Card?). The Tuning Adapter (TA) is another box that looks a bit like a modem. It's also required if you want to get all your subscribed channels and your cable systems uses something called Switched Digital Video (SDV). Cable systems with several hundred channels can't fit them all on the wire going to your house. So many systems have adopted SDV to solve this problem. When you tune a channel, the request goes to the TA which in turn asks the cable company to put your channel in the stream. If you don't use a TA in an SDV system, you'll still get a lot of basic channels but will be missing several others. Without your own TA, the SDV channels you do get will depend on whether someone else in your neighborhood is watch them as well.

If I were you, I wouldn't let Cox or SD off the hook until you got all your channels.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 23
8/3/12 at 1:36pm
I think of the tuning adaptor as a big, ugly, hideous thing that looks worse than a cable STB from 1980. It is bigger than my modem and Prime combined. I could probably add the router in there too; and maybe the switch. I have all my network stuff set up in the corner of my office. The T.A. is the only piece of that equipment that is not visible because I just don't want to see that clunky thing.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 23
8/3/12 at 1:50pm
OMG, your Cisco (I'm guessing) is a monster. My Motorola truly is the size of a modem. Here they are side by side.


Here's a typical cable card for good measure (not to scale).
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 23
8/3/12 at 1:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MOrndorff View Post

Yes it is SD viewer
That sounds like the root of your problem... Forget SD's quicktv for anything other than the basic channels as cox usually flags nearly everything as copy once... only wmc can get anything but the basic channels with cox. You need to have the tuner set to cablecard ( not digital tuner and don't switch it back and forth, if you have a cablecard the setting for the device is cablecard, if you don't have one, the setting is digital cable) Though I don't think it happened, you may have unpaired the card with this switching back and forth so you may need to call cox's cablecard line and send it a hit. While doing diagnostics/setup I would run WMC in a window not full screen. Some people when configuring cablecard for WMC don't run it in a window and may not see a prompt, so it is generally recommended to run WMC in a window for setup to ensure you see the prompts.

Have you set all 3 tuners to cablecard? Does card activation state success? Are you running WMC? Have you run the DCA? Have you installed/updated playready?
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 23
8/3/12 at 2:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdavej View Post

OMG, your Cisco (I'm guessing) is a monster. My Motorola truly is the size of a modem. Here they are side by side.

Here's a typical cable card for good measure (not to scale).

Yup.. That's it. FUGLY!
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 23
8/3/12 at 3:04pm
+1

LOL....... ya I have that exact Cisco TA and it looks like a cb radio from the 70s !! Mine looks like it was drug down a dirt road but it works .
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 23
8/16/12 at 2:57pm
Thread Starter 
Okay, so I just got off the phone with Cox again and they disconnected and repaired the card again. here is te log file hat I see.

19700101-00:00:00 System: reset reason = power on
19700101-00:00:01 CableCARD: M-CARD inserted
19700101-00:00:01 CableCARD: invalid session 0xDEAD (cchost_session:267)
19700101-00:00:03 System: network link 1000f
19700101-00:00:03 System: ip address obtained: 192.168.111.111 / 255.255.255.0
19700101-00:00:07 CableCARD: Cisco card (0103:0001)
19700101-00:00:11 CableCARD: authentication status: authentication in progress
19700101-00:00:11 CableCARD: authentication status: authentication success, activation success
19700101-00:00:44 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 25 (609MHz-25) access = subscribed
19700101-00:00:49 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 25 (609MHz-25) access = not-subscribed
19700101-00:00:55 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 3 (663MHz-3) access = unspecified
19700101-00:00:58 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 4 (519MHz-4) access = unspecified
19700101-00:01:01 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 5 (519MHz-5) access = unspecified
19700101-00:01:04 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 13 (639MHz-13) access = subscribed
19700101-00:01:09 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 13 (639MHz-13) access = not-subscribed
19700101-00:01:15 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 14 (663MHz-14) access = unspecified
19700101-00:01:21 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 23 (111MHz-23) access = unspecified
19700101-00:01:24 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 25 (609MHz-25) access = subscribed
19700101-00:01:29 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 25 (609MHz-25) access = not-subscribed
19700101-00:01:35 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 26 (609MHz-26) access = subscribed
19700101-00:01:40 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 26 (609MHz-26) access = not-subscribed
19700101-00:01:46 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 33 (657MHz-33) access = subscribed
19700101-00:01:51 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 33 (657MHz-33) access = not-subscribed
19700101-00:03:08 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 52 (513MHz-52) access = subscribed
19700101-00:03:13 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 52 (513MHz-52) access = not-subscribed
20120816-21:26:31 CableCARD: time changed from Thu Jan 01 00:04:20 1970 to Thu Aug 16 21:26:31 2012
20120816-21:29:10 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 51 (411MHz-51) access = subscribed
20120816-21:29:15 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 51 (411MHz-51) access = not-subscribed
20120816-21:29:54 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 72 (639MHz-163) access = subscribed
20120816-21:29:59 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 72 (639MHz-163) access = not-subscribed
20120816-21:32:09 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 23 (111MHz-23) access = unspecified
20120816-21:32:16 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 53 (687MHz-53) access = unspecified
20120816-21:32:39 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 25 (609MHz-25) access = subscribed
20120816-21:32:44 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 25 (609MHz-25) access = not-subscribed

So on channels 25, 26 etc, it shows access = subscribed and access = not-subscribed. The tech at this point wants to roll a truck and I said no as they have already been here and charged me $$ and did not fix the issue. Could it possibly be the HDHomeRun Prime unit that is the problem?
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 23
8/16/12 at 3:40pm
Have you opened a ticket with SiliconDust or posted on their forum too?
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 23
8/16/12 at 3:59pm
You may need another card and/or convince them to send you a cold hit. I sometimes think this also occurs when they give you a cable card that was meant (staged) to be in a STB rather than a retail device.

I'll quote jasonl from the forums over at SD:
Quote:
"activation success" means the card is paired with the HDHomeRun PRIME. Seeing subscribed then not-subscribed usually means that conditional access (i.e. the ability to decrypt stuff) is not enabled on the card. A "cold hit" or "grand slam hit" might correct this, if you can convince them to actually do it. Some are reluctant because it used to cause problems in the early days of single-stream cards, but it isn't a problem anymore with M-CARDs so there's no reason not to try it. In some cases, they actually have to remove the card from the account, reassign it to inventory, then start all the way at the beginning with adding it to the account and setting up all the channel packages and whatnot.

I've seen him mention this on issues for comcast and twc but didn't find one specific to cox yet.

Edit: I saw Sammy2's post and I'll second giving the SD forum a try
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 23
8/16/12 at 6:12pm
Thread Starter 
I have opened a ticket with SD on this issue and they are pointing to Cox as the problem. I will get Cox to do the cold hit and see if that works. I am also waiting on SD to see what they have to say.
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 23
11/28/12 at 7:47pm
It is impossible to get anyone over the phone at Charter to fix this. They simply don't know what to do. They claim they do, but they really don't. All us Charter subs have been down this road before. You must PM a Umatter2Charter rep in the forum. They can fix your problem immediately. You'll see a couple in the HTDV - Programming - Charter thread.
Reply
Reply
post #21 of 23
12/9/12 at 9:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by signcarver View Post

That sounds like the root of your problem... Forget SD's quicktv for anything other than the basic channels as cox usually flags nearly everything as copy once... only wmc can get anything but the basic channels with cox. You need to have the tuner set to cablecard ( not digital tuner and don't switch it back and forth, if you have a cablecard the setting for the device is cablecard, if you don't have one, the setting is digital cable) Though I don't think it happened, you may have unpaired the card with this switching back and forth so you may need to call cox's cablecard line and send it a hit. While doing diagnostics/setup I would run WMC in a window not full screen. Some people when configuring cablecard for WMC don't run it in a window and may not see a prompt, so it is generally recommended to run WMC in a window for setup to ensure you see the prompts.
Have you set all 3 tuners to cablecard? Does card activation state success? Are you running WMC? Have you run the DCA? Have you installed/updated playready?

If one has several HTPCs accessing the HD Prime, will it (disrupt?) this pairing? Let's say at least HTPC has the Prime as Cable card on one tuner and digital on the others?
Does AZ Cox limit how many HTPCs can access the Prime?
Reply
Reply
post #22 of 23
12/10/12 at 7:21am
The pairing is between the prime and the cablecard, doesn't matter about the computer accessing it. If you are using a cablecard, you really want all the tuners on cablecard, not digital... there may be an exception if you have 2 primes to get 4 cablecard tuners and 2 clear qam tuners as WMC generally limits tuners to 4 of each type (tuner salad is a way around this). Separate computers each need their own tuner for the same program in wmc. If you are having problems with the prime being accessed by multiple computers, it is probably a network problem somewhere.
Reply
Reply
post #23 of 23
12/10/12 at 9:02am
Thank you for that.

The one HTPC that gives me the most problems also has a tuner (Avermedia A188 white box).
Perhaps the issue is that this tuner is fighting the Silicone Prime? IIRC WMC has a hierarchy on
which tuner to use based on best signal?

BTW, this HTPC is able to stream off the server and access other computers with no problems,
as well as view the network surveillance system, so I'm >assuming< network connection with the
Silicone Prime is not an issue. Wouldn't be the first time my assumptions were wrong though.
Edited by tomandbeth - 12/10/12 at 9:08am
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Home Theater Computers

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Video Components › Home Theater Computers › Problem with getting all channels