Ceton PCIe InfinityTV 4 “Display driver error”

[SJMaye]

I recently completed my move out of state.  Got my MC hooked up with cable card.  Ran got all the check marks on the Ceton diagnostics.  I then went through setting up my TV signals again.  Everything should work, but when I click on most of the channels I get the error, “Display driver error. The video playback device does not support playback of protected content”

This is on a MC that was installed and working fine on Comcast and now, in Wisconsin, on Time Warner Cable I am getting this error.  Any ideas?

 

[oliverredfox]

Not certain but it sounds like you could have a HDCP problem.  You probably already have; but have you tried a different HDMI cable to see if it was having handshake issues?

[SJMaye]

I have not tried another HDMI cable.  I am using the same one that was working fine when on Comcast.  I have some others to try.  I will report back.

[SJMaye]

Hello,

I have not been able to try another cable yet.  I will go over to the house and do so today.  But it struck me odd.  I have been using TeamViewer to do work on the MC remotely (which I have done many times) and still get the same error.  How can the HDMI cable have anything to do with this? 

 

Again, many thanks for the help.

[babgvant]

[quote=SJMaye]

I have not tried another HDMI cable.  I am using the same one that was working fine when on Comcast.  I have some others to try.  I will report back.

[/quote]

It’s quite possible that the shows were flagged differently on Comcast.

If you’re not running the latest GPU drivers try an update if swapping cables doesn’t help.

[johnw248]

[quote=SJMaye] Everything should work, but when I click on most of the channels I get the error, “Display driver error. The video playback device does not support playback of protected content”

This is on a MC that was installed and working fine on Comcast and now, in Wisconsin, on Time Warner Cable I am getting this error.  Any ideas?

[/quote]

When you get the display error, go to the Ceton Web Gui and click on the tuner in use and look at the encryption. Almost everything on TWC is marked as copy once (unlike most other cable systems that have many “open” programs). Shows marked as copy once will not play unless there is a HDCP connection to the display. Depending on your graphic card, it may show you the HDCP status for your connection.

Also with content marked 0x02, it will not display if you have multiple displays connected to the computer and set-up as a cloned desktop. You must set it as an expanded desktop (the theory is the second display is actually a “copy”).

(When you click on the tuner in the Ceton web gui, if you see: Copy Control Information: “One Copy” (0x02), you must have a HDCP connection to the display or you must use an extender if your graphic card or cables don’t work for HDCP. Strangely you’ll be able to record the programs but not play them except as above through an extender or a graphic card supporting HDCP.)

[SJMaye]

Thanks for the input.  I may have some other things going on.  Things are a little better.  I got the same results with another cable verfied as HDMI 1.3.  I then went and followed these instructions.  I am now able to get a few channels, but still others either have no picture or still get the driver display error.  I did not check them all, but I was able to get local channel OK.  I did see that if I disconnected the HDMI cable from the MC some of the channels would display on my  HTPC case built-in display (vga).

I am essentially starting all over here in Wisconsin.  Would reinstalling/resetting MC as if just installed help?  If so, any hints how?  I have no problems starting over.

 

[johnw248]

I wouldn’t re-install anything. If you feel that you need to reset Media Center, you can do it very easily. Just right click on Computer (if it’s on your desktop) and choose Manage, then open the little triangle next to Task Scheduler and open Taks Scheduler Library/Microsoft/Windows/Media Center and find the Media Center Recovery Task (its under the mcupdate entries). Highlight it and then choose RUN from the Action Menu. When you open Media Center it will be back to out of the box version and you’ll have to set it up. I’m not sure if you’ll have to run the Digital Cable Advisor again or not, but you’ll have to go through set-up for the tuner and all scheduled programs will be lost. Any protected recordings will still play.

But before you do that, what is your graphic card? Do you have the second display set up as an extended Desktop? One of those two should solve your problem and a new graphic card such as a GT430 nVidia isn’t very costly to solve your problems if it’s HDCP related.

Resetting Media Center will not solve a HDCP issue so make sure that’s cleared up first. Then if you have other problems, those can probably be worked out without resetting MC as well. Things are a little touchy when you’re dealing with CCI protection on cableCARD recordings since a protected path is required from the signal to the display.

John

[SJMaye]

John,

Thanks.  I did the Media Center Restore and as you suspected, it changed nothing with the Display driver error problem. 

I would have no problem having Time Warner back out to finish the install and confirm channels, but I believe the HDCP issue is something with may MC.  I have no idea why since it is the same MC I was using fine in Nashville.  FRUSTRATING

Another thing I think there is a problem with is the signal level.  I thought I read it well below   -5dB. 

 

[johnw248]

Signal level *should* be within +/- 7 dBmV although the standard is actually wider (+/- 10 dBmV) and a good SNR of 30 db with a higher number better.

I really think your efforts should point you to your video card. Channels which are “clear” (i.e. CCI 00) should come in fine. On TWC that is usually just the retransmission of the OTA channels like NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS and local indy channels. Things like Discovery, History, ESPN, etc are all marked 0x02 and require HDCP for display.

What video card are you using and what driver?

You can prove the HDCP issue by recording a channel you can’t watch and then playing it back on the computer with a VGA monitor. If that works then your problem is HDCP. If it doesn’t work then you might have a cableCARD authorization issue where your account isn’t properly placed on your card. If this is the case you’ll have all check marks and it still won’t work.

If you have a Cisco/SA cableCARD you can check the conditoinal access detail easily. Go to the Ceton Web Gui, Click on cableCARD and then open Conditional Access details in a new tab. If it’s proper you’ll see something like this:

Conditional Access Details

System Id: 0x0E00
Status: Ready
Internal Secure Micro Serial No:
02:06:00:71:7E:00
Secure Micro Software Ver:
3.14
CA Time:
Sun Jun 24 2012, 1:07:00 PM GMT
Time GBAM: 55374
App GBAM: 0
Purchase GBAM: 0
EMMs Processed: 8
 If you account isn’t on the card properly, instead of READY you might see NOT STAGED.

This is a problem you can have taken care of on the phone. If you’re having cableCARD issues, there is a 24/7 help line for TWC cableCARDs: 1-866-532-2598 and they have the power to pair and authorize cards. They might have to refer and issue where the account information is wrong or the hardware is on the account incorrectly.

Believe it or not, the order that the equipment is listed can determine whether it will work or not so if someone added something on to your account and it’s in the wrong place it won’t work.

Usually if this is the problem, you’ll only see the OTA retransmission channels and the normal error is “subscription required” for other channels.

[SJMaye]

 Hello John,

I am using a Cisco cablecard.  Here are my Conditional Access Details.  Do they make any sense to you?

Cisco CableCARD(tm)
Conditional Access Details

System Id: 0x0E00
Status: Ready
Internal Secure Micro Serial No:
02:08:00:3C:ED:6E
Secure Micro Software Ver:
3.14
CA Time:
Mon Jun 25 2012, 8:38:00 AM GMT
Time GBAM: 1807
App GBAM: 0
Purchase GBAM: 0
EMMs Processed: 0

 I have checked a number of channels.  The Display driver error thing I get is not consistent even for the local channels.  A few times I was able to view CBS on the SD and HD channels, but later got the display driver error thing.  Same for ABC.  I got either the diplay driver error or Service is unavailable errors or a black screen for those channels.  I am currently recording SD CBS, HD CBS, SD ABC, and HD ABC to see what playback is like on VGA.

I also put a trouble ticket in to Ceton. 

 

[SJMaye]

Update.  I read around about this issue.  There were a couple of comments that caught my eye. 

1. There could be an HDMI incompatibility between MC and the TV

1. The TV I am trying to connect to is not the same TV this system was running with before. 

[Valve1138]

I think I ran into this exact issue when I first got my Ceton. If I remember correctly it’s nothing to do with the display driver in a way, but the speaker config.

I had to set the Windows Sound control panel to 2.1 speakers, then in WMC I set it 5.1.

The problem went away after that.

[SJMaye]

I thought I had this fixed with the previous post, but the problem was transient.  My new location requires a tuning adapter.  I installed it and still got the device driver error.  Out of shear frustration I went back and updated Playready and all the problems went away.  All is workign fine now.

[XMan]

Another thing to try is to use the Microsoft DRM reset tool. I had to use this when I swapped motherboards. Thankfully I didn’t have any flagged recordings, I think you lose access to them when you do the reset. Plus you have to rerun the channel scan and set the guide back up. :/

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