Sony DHG-HDD250/500: Official Thread - Page 831

I have done a front panel reset, and a power recycle. The clock still remains at --:-- and without guide data.

I think I will try and pull the cable card and see if that helps.

If you have lost your date and TVGOS updates I guess you have nothing to lose. Physically resetting the card has been known to fix problems, but it is rare. But, since you have one unit that you say is getting data, the second unit should recover quickly with a legacy feed. On the good unit, what is your host channel?

Did I mention that I lost my data a week ago and still have a valid clock? I lost my last day of listings this morning. I sent an email to Rovi and have not received an answer.

My host channel is the PBS analog channel 94, at least that's what Rovi told me when I have worked with them in the past to get the guide data working again. I haven't verified myself. Looks like its an equipment issue on **my end** this time........

Rovi usually works with me and emails me back. Sometimes they take days or weeks to respond but eventually the problem gets fixed.
Edited by acribb - 7/5/12 at 12:47pm

Best way to find the channel that is "now" your TVGOS source is to check the clock set channel on the unit that is working.

Then tune your clockless DHG to that channel and run the G* test by using the 971397135 code (needed because you are not OTA). You should have a valid clock within two minutes or you have serious strangeness going on.

If it's still analog 94 your DHG shuold have a full grid by tomorrow.

On the "good" unit, tune to your host channel. Run the 753... diag and 1:94-0 should be your host. I use firmware .13 since my host has always been analog. If you added the .21 firmware your host field may be blank. If you have [2] after the GMT clock, that means you did a reset and there is no data. No host or HostID of 0 means no data for three days. I'm speculating this all works the same with a cable card. Since I have had no data since 6/28 my host is blank & HostID has gone to zero but I still have a [3] after my clock and good time. Best procedure is to wait and NOT do any resets.

Confirmed. It's my cable card. I do the test on 94 on the working unit and the VBI passes and I get VBI packets. When I do the same test on the broken unit it fails the VBI test. When I remove the cable card from the broken unit, I tune to channel 8, the same analog channel unmapped, and I get a clock and VBI packets.

How could a cable card work, but not pass VBI over a channel?

maybe your cable company was kind enough to push out a firmware update which clobbered the analog functionality.

Perhaps on the "broken unit" channel 94 is mapped to a digital (SD no TVGOS data) version of channel 8. The system diagnostics page could verify.

So how do I get the cable card to work on channel 94?

Will swapping for a different card change things?

Good cable card-


Bad cable card-

Edited by acribb - 7/5/12 at 9:31pm

Pretty pictures. How about a picture of the 753... screen of Section System - Statistics from the working unit?

I would write down all the numbers on the bad cable card, put it in the DHG and call tech support to get the card reset.

But I speculate since I don't have a cable card and I never said to run the 9012 test.

I called Comcast and asked them to reset the card. They said they did, but there was no indication of anything happening on screen. Stil no VBI on my host channel.

Is there a digital host channel in Jacksonville Fl?

Good cablecard-



Bad cablecard-

Why two different zip codes? Why tune to channel 432 to run the test?

You forgot to mention that you now have a valid clock. Leave it alone, it might get a host by tomorrow.
Edited by JoeKustra - 7/6/12 at 6:38am

For the past couple months my DHG-HDD500's have been receiving TVGOS data from Comcast's analog channel 19, the Hallmark Channel here . I don't use CC's. Before then the Sony's functioned as tuners only.

The only reason I have a valid clock is because I pulled the cablecard and left it overnight. Unfortunately, there is still no data being passed through to channel 94, my host channel on this cablecard. When I pull the cablecard, I get data on the QAM channel 8, which is also PBS.

Before I posted this thread, I had reset the tv guide and left it alone for over 2 weeks. No clock and no guide.

It's either a cablecard issue or could it be an issue with the firmware being lower than the other unit?

That software patch level will work with an analog host, which you have. I would try for a new card.

The firmware is fine. the patch is only up to 08.05.40 (since you reset it) but that is ok, I would think it would be back to 08.06.44 soon, as long as your cable card is removed (since that seems to be the source of your problem). For some reason the cable card seems to be blocking the TVGOS data. The cablecard in the other unit isn 't behaving this way.

Mark

Don't CC's map all channels to their digital equivalents if available?

They (CC) map them to virtual channels. It's not a digital issue.

You know more than I do. I thought virtual channels were digital channels.

Well it doesn't HAVE to be that way but it usually works that way.

If I hit 2 I get a 480i CBS on my TiVo. If I hit 502 I get 1080i CBS.

If, on the DHG, I hit 2 I get NTSC 2. If I hit 72.6 I get QAM digital 480i CBS. If I hit 85.1501 I get 1080i on the DHG.

For "pretty" digital channels you need either a CC or a good PSIP. I have no PSIP. Most of the time the PSIP is used to map channels to their pre-DTV numbers. Lookup your channel in Wiki and check the history.

The problem you are having is your one card is using the cable box channel map which is all digital. You have to call comcast and give them the serial number off the card and tell them to make sure that it is receiving the cablecard channel map. Remember that cable boxes all have cablecards in them so it is a common mistake if one of your cards start using the cable box channel map. They should find this information in your account as this is what controls all the devices in their system.
I had this same problem when my cable system transitioned to the new headend. Every time they altered my line up my cards would switch to the all digital cable box line up and my TVGOS would stop. Remember cable boxes no longer have analog tuning capabilities so the channel map will be all digital. If you tune both DHGs to the host channel and then look into the cablecard diagnostics you will see that one is analog and one is digital. The cablecard diagnostics has nothing to do with the TVGOS diagnsotics.
I hope this helps.

Between PSIP and virtual channels I've found that different tuners can present different line-ups from the same source. TiVo w/o a CC is the strangest, it occasionally employs the same virtual numbers for completely different channels, both on cable.

The only really predictable digital tuners I've run across are older ones which receive only actual, not virtual or PSIP generated digital channel numbers.

My Tivo without a cable card found the same channels as my DHG. I only got the card since I got pissed at the warning messages. My TV has the exact same lineup as my DHG. There are a few differences on my MDR515H, but only a few. Raw clear QAM should be static when no PSIP is found. Some of my vsb channels have SCTE-127 and some have data that looks like XDS enough to mess up some clocks. All-in-all, it's a challenge.

A Tivo without a cable card is at the mercy of the PSIP. I don't have PSIP data on my channels. As of my last scan I have 26 vsb and 146 clear QAM digital channels. There are about 200 scrambled QAM and the DHG channel diagnostics displays over 600.

In my situation, I can move my CableCards around from device to device, and they all work in any device. I don't have to call the CableCo to tell them I swapped something. I don't know if that's the case everywhere. You might try swapping your cards around to see if that changes things . . .
Edited by WS65711 - 7/6/12 at 1:40pm

Comcast offers a few channels at my location in analog format only except from cable boxes. More interesting, some basic channels are available in digital format only.

My modest level of service requires I use Comcast's standard-def cable box, and doesn't allow CC's. I receive high-def channels w/o a CC on Sony, TiVo, Moxi, and LG recorders, but channel numbers vary. Sony uses a mixture of virtual and PSIP generated channels, as does Moxi but Moxi maps them to Comcast's CC line-up. LG's early DVR receives only actual channel numbers. TiVo is all over the place; two standard-def channels are shown as Unknown 0-0, one Univision, the other a PBS channel. That channel's hi-def comes in on virtual 12-1 but the local standard-def channel 12 is also displayed as a different 12-1. There's more but too much is enough! TV is too complicated.

In the days of VHF 2-13 the pictures weren't as good but the programs were; there were just less of them. Then came UHF and cable and everything started to go to pot...

500+ channels and nothing to watch!
Edited by fallingwater - 7/6/12 at 2:58pm

And getting worse. The future ain't what it used to be.

I installed a preamp on the roof antenna to boost the OTA single and it works great. Getting amazing reception here in Los Angeles.

One odd item. My panasonic tv shows 85% single strength for KCBS 2.1 (the TVGOS channel) and it comes in great.

If i hook the antenna up to the sony 250 it drops the channel. why would this be? It doesn't come in at all.

The tuner on the Sony is 7 year old technology, and may not be as good as your other tuner. But are you using the EXACT same cable to feed the Sony? Moving the wire?
Or are you using a splitter with another cable? If so, the splitter or other cable may be causing problems.

Also, have you done a fresh channel scan with the Sony? Are you trying to tune the channel using its virtual channel number or its physical channel number?
You will NOT be able to tune the channel as "2.1" until it has been tuned at least once using its physical channel number (whatever that may be).

i moved the cable so it's the same one. prior to channel scan i had KCBS listed in the line up and there was no reception. After the channel scan it dropped the channel from the lineup.

other channels with similar signal strength on the Panasonic come in just fine with the hdd250. I had the channel prior to the preamp (though reception was spotty) and it came in on both tuners. Now it comes in much better on the Panasonic and not at all on the hdd250.

i'm using the Virtual channel number. It's KCBS channel 2.1.