The Official Vista Cable Card Thread - Page 58

Is your ATI firmware the latest?

I am using camcast basic cable service, my sharp LCD can receieve both analog and clear qam , now i just bought a vista media center pc with internal ATI wonder OCUR card with open cable slot. but I DO NOT have cable card, my pc can only receive analog cable channel only, the pc has activetd with the digital cable service cause I need type the digital cable key (not vista key) to active. every time I try to change to clear qam channel, and I can not, just want to know how can i receive clear qam using ATI OCUR card without cable card inserted? thanks,

Yes.

Go into TV Signal setup and choose "Scan for More Services." That should place your clearQAM channels into the line-up beginning with channel # 2000.

Ralph3, I would install the Vista TV pack. Look around for it and you'll find it.
I am currently using two OCUR tuners with no cablecard and everything is solid.

thanks, another question: since my pc has only one OCUR for cable reception, can I add 2nd or 3rd ATSC digital card? how the vista mce handle multiple digital card, do mce support PIP?

Thanks for the reply. I am hesitant to install the TV Pack because, based on what I've read, there are a lot of useful little VMC add-ons that won't work with the TV Pack installed. That, and plus, the dang thing should just work like it's supposed to. There's nothing special about my XPS420, and it's brand new. It just bombs out with the "Media Center Has Stopped Working" message whenever I try to complete the "Download provider information" step in setup, or when I try to tune to, or even pass by, a few certain clearQAM channels. That just shouldn't happen. It shouldn't stop working until I click the close button. Well, that is, unless what I'm beginning to suspect is actually true, and that is that VMC is basically a big turd.

I would like to try to set VMC back to "factory" defaults though, to make it as if VMC Setup had never even been run. Anyone know of a way to reset VMC?

I did not look to see if you were using Verizon or Comcast but I am pretty sure that it does not matter. I have Verizon Fios.

I have been wondering why you are using the ATI tuner just for getting the local channels. That seems like an expensive way to go when you could do the same thing with an HD Homerun.

The HD Homerun is a cable QAM tuner and gets the local channels from my Verizon Fios. It is a very small footprint device that has two tuners in it.

Just like you found with the ATI device with no cable Card, the Homerun will tune to some other channels besides just the locals. It all depends upon which channels are not encrypted. Ie. wether that channel needs to be unlocked via a cable card.

I have my Vista Cable Card Systems setup with 2 ATI's (and cable cards) + one HD Homerun.
This gives me the ability to record 4 Channels at the same time. All 4 tuners can be doing the local stations or 2 doing the non locals(ATI)+2 doing the locals(Homerun).

On 'thegreenbutton' I read several posts where they say that Vista can handle up to 4 ATI tuners(even with Cable Cards). It is just a registry setting that you change.


However, Whether the PC has enough horsepower to handle 4 streams at once is another story and if you have any interest in adding a Homerun, I can explain.

I would love to try an experiment on my quad core machine with 4 ATI tuners going at the same time as the Homerun (Vista's Media Center only allows one NON Occur device). That would be 6 tuners all going at once

Joe

Just to update everyone in case it may help someone with a similar issue... I went ahead and installed the 2008 TV Pack. It completely fixed the problem I was having with certain channels causing VMC to stop and restart. It also automatically picked up 4 clearQAM HD channels on my TimeWarner cable feed. I am getting ABC, NBC, MNT, and TheCW.

I haven't done much with the TV Pack yet, but so far I like what I've seen. I'm new to Media Center so I don't have any MC add-ons that I'm used to using. I assume I may be disappointed when I try to use some of them and they don't work because I'm running the TV Pack. But still, at least it solved my crashing problem, it's running fine, and so far, I like the improvements they've made.

Now if I could just figure out how to manually add high-def FOX, CBS, & PBS, I'd be good to go.

Not sure what you mean by this, but if you receive them as clear QAM[unscrambled] then you can reassign them to their analog channel line up in VMC, task, "settings", TV, guide, Add listings to Channel, select channel, reassign..

I have an XPS420 with double ATI tuner with cablecards... everything works fine. I am looking for an extender to watch TV in my bedroom, but all of the extenders I have looked at advertise the capabilities of watching shows *saved* on my HTPC. I have two questions:

1) is there a way of using an extender to watch live streaming TV in my bedroom rather than prerecorded shows?

2) can I actually watch prerecorded shows using an extender or the DCM protection is going to kick in.

Thanks!
Alex

All Vista extenders should allow you to watch both live TV and recorded content even if you are using cablecard.

There was a new optional ATI DCT Windows update offered to me in Windows update today. Anyone know what it does? I tried to figure it out but only got a generic "It improves something some times on some systems" kind of an answer. Anyone?

On a side not, I also am having trouble connecting my new Hauppauge HD PVR through the supplied Arcsoft TotalMedia Extreme software I think because of the ATI tuner conflicting in some way (only a guess on my part). It crashes with a Windows error which reads, "VideoCapture has stopped working and will now close this program." I tried unplugging the ATI tuner, disabling it in Device mngr. and rebooting Vista 32bit (SP1) and removing and reinstalling the software (Total Media Extreme) but still have the same problem. Anyone else here get a Hauppauge HD PVR to work on an ATI DCT computer?
Thanks.

I have a month old HP d5000t with external DCT / CCard installed. I got it with the GeForce 9500 GS card, which is damn near worthless, in case you were wondering. My main problem was with overscan and the 9500 GS reset its overscan compensation every time I rebooted. Tried beta drivers, reinstall, reinstall windows, to resolve this. Nothing worked. Also, in 1080p mode with the overscan scaling on, the card couldn't keep up...bad frame loss.

Long story short, I got a Radeon 4850 which instantly solved the overscan issue and, it turns out, provides a much better image at 1080p than the GeForce. The only problem is that now, Live TV in VMC doesn't work unless I take out the cable card or watch from the XBOX extender. Blu-Ray works great. So this is clearly a DRM issue in media center (I thought it might be HDCP until the BD player worked perfectly).

The live tv error is: "Restricted Content - Decoder"

I verified that the microsoft decoders are still being used.

Having said all that, I have no idea how to fix it. All the latest drivers and patches, all the obvious measures have been tried. Has anyone else replaced the factory card on your HTPC and had this issue?

I will also throw out there that the XBOX360 is generally considered the best of the lot (animated UI, etc.) with the exception of the cost (if you don't already have one) and the fact that it is loud.

I have the "usual" XPS420 with two OCURs and latest software and firmware. Everything seems to work fine, but yesterday I switched to Disney HD and I got the infamous green screen :-((((((

I thought that was taken care of with Vista SP1!!! Do the old hotfixes still apply? Why do I get it only on Disney HD?

EDIT: I scanned through all of the channels and I get the same problem also on SCIHD and FAMHD.. no other channels

The problem is still described on Microsoft at the following link, which describes perfectly what happens and their solution is to install SP1 !!!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943195

Any advice?

Update: I opened a support ticket with Microsoft on this issue. I had to lecture tier 1 and 2 on how this is a DRM issue, putting the ball in their court. Won.

I am now dealing with a T3 tech who has access the developer's front line crew (not the dev's themselves). He has assured me that they will have an action plan shortly. The dev I am working with has seen the issue before, but it's supposedly not very common.

I also have a ticket open with ATI, but their support hours of operation are horrible, so it's been online support only...which is crawling.

Update: Installing Vista from a retail disc as opposed to the HP disc solved this issue. The HP install disk is Vista SP1. If I install sp1, the issue returns.

Hello,

This will sound too simple, but does activating/reactivating Windows help?

Thanks.

Still going to need a valid key for vista home premium to try that.

I haven't been able to get the cable cards signal recognized during the setup.

This has bee such a F***ing pain in the @$$.

I installed the TV pack a few days ago, now I don't even have the option in setup for digital cable tuners, or to uninstall it. Cable company says the cards are paired and recognized by them. Looking at the device status web pages looks a little suspect to me. (ATI external tuners)

Any tips on what to do based on the statuses listed below? Thanks in advance for any help.

Card / Tuner 1.

Network Setup

LKC: 75.250 EMM: 1
Status: TUNED_STATE
OOB Msgs: 186984

Hunt

CableCARD(tm) Status

Manufacturer: 0x00 (Motorola)
Version: 03.34
Unit Address: 0011CDAC8C
000-02986-91724-177

Download Status
Segments left to download: 0
State: Wait To Start

Entitlement Management Messages
EMM Provider ID: 1

Out of Band Channel
Last Known Carrier: 75.250 Tuned

In order to start cable service
for this device, please contact
your cable provider


CableCARD(tm): 000-298-691-724-9
Host: 033-000-022-704-2
Data: 285-723-229-73

UnitAddress: 000-02986-91724-177

Conditional Access

Unit Address: 0011CDAC8C
000-02986-91724-177
State: CA Disabled
ECM PID: 0x0000
Component PIDs:
0x0000 0x0000 0x0000
0x0000 0x0000 0x0000
Host Validation: Unknown 00
Copy Protection Key: Disabled
CCI: 11

Card / tuner 2 has different statuses

Network Setup


OOB Mode: OOB GTC: OOB
2-Way Established: Unknown
OOB LKC: 75.250
OOB Status: IDLE

EMM PID: 1 0x1503
Messages: 261025

VCTID: 2 VCT Rcvd: 56797



Hunt

CableCARD(tm) Status

Manufacturer: Motorola
FW Version: 02.01, --.--, 03.25
HW Version: 0469927002
Unit Address: 0x00000F050F
000-00009-84335-125
Download Status
Segments left to download: 0
State: Wait To Start
News:
EMM Provider ID: 1

Out of Band Channel Mode: OOB
Last Known Carrier: 75.250
REFRESH

CableCARD(tm) Pairing

In order to start cable service
for this device, please contact
your cable provider


CableCARD ID: 000-000-984-335-0
Host ID: 033-000-041-448-3
Data: 301-805-867-75

UnitAddress: 000-00009-84335-125
eCM MAC: --:--:--:--:--:--

Host Reports: 1-Way RF only
REFRESH

Conditional Access
Unit Address:000-00009-84335-125
EncryptionES
Con:Yes EBCP:Yes Val:? 0x00

This info below isn't available for the card # 1.
DSG/DOCSIS Screen



In OOB Mode

Interactive (Aloha) Info

IP Address: 0.0.0.0
UPM Address: 0x000000
DSP ID: 0x0000
USP ID: 0x0000
DSP: Unconfigured
USP: No Message To Send
Signon Status: Unknown
Ack timeout: 0 msec
Cell Abort count: 0 (max = 0)
MAC Abort count: 0 (max = 0)



REFRESH

I am totally confused.

I have been using a dual ATI DCT HP Vista Media Center PC for my Verizon Fios Cable for about a year now and I have no clue how to get it to display that level of detailed status that you posted.

There is the Media Center DCT diagnostic menu and the web based view of the 2 tuners but nothing looks like that.

How are you getting this status?

Thank You

I got the info from the network control panel, and then just selected view device web page. On the card tab there are a bunch of links to get all the detail. This is not through media center. It does' t even recognize the tuners

Options:
1) "TIVO CABLECARD"
2) "TV CABLECARD"

Any difference? Will the TIVO compatible card work with the ATI USB device?

Thanks
Ecolive

I am going to assume that the "Tivo Cablecard" is an M-card which the ATI devices don't fully support. Go with the TV Cablecard.

I got a second tuner and dont have a cable card in it yet. I can get VMC to recognize the tuner as a digital cable tuner. VMC wants to install it as a OTA tuner. Any suggestions? When I select configure myTV signalIt does not identify as digital cable. Switched the cables and that is not the issue. Any suggestions?

For anyone who has 4 tuners working in Vista via the registry hack (no TVPack), I'm having trouble getting my additional 2 CableCard tuners working. They all work fine from Digital Signal Diagnostics, but I get a "Tuner Not Available" message the moment I try to tune to the 3rd tuner.

Does the registry hack still work or was it invalidated by a Windows Update? Do we have to use the TVPack now?

Anyone having problems with SP1?

My SP1 + all other offered patches, dual-OCUR on Comcast, ATI HD 2600XT machine is running fine.

--Don

Working for me also with Vista Premium 32 bits in a HP m9300t computer... The only issues I had were due to the Symantec/Norton Firewall... resolved by the links below:

MANUALLY-> http://solutions.symantec.com/sdccom...n&ct=us&src=gg

or via an application -> http://www.symantec.com/norton/suppo...247EN&ln=en_US