jeam

[jeam]

Thanks for the scoop, Aaron — I appreciate it!

 

[jeam]

OK, I have an update on this issue.

Today I downloaded and installed Patch Tuesday Windows Updates, then rebooted.

After the system was back up, I opened WMC and selected Live TV. This is the message I got:

Viewing or Listening Conflict

No tuner available to satisfy the current request.

I waited two minutes and clicked on the “channel up” button, to see if it could now tune to the next channel. This is the message I got then:

Service is unavailable

There is currently no TV signal detected for this channel. The channel may be temporarily off the air. Try again later.

I went up another channel, and got the same message. So this time I waited 10 minutes and tried the “channel down” button. Same message.

Next I pulled the CableCARD out of the back of the InfiniTV 4 tuner, waited 20 seconds, and pushed it back in. I waited 15 more seconds and clicked on the “channel up” button again.

This time (as usual) we finally got a live TV channel.

What do you think?

 

[jeam]

Sounds good, thanks.

Next time I need to reboot the system, I’ll hold off on removing the CableCARD and then write down the error message and refer us back to this thread.

 

[jeam]

[quote=mikinho]

Next time, don’t pull the CableCARD, this shouldn’t be needed–ever.  When starting up the tuner may not be available for ~30 seconds – 2 minutes.

[/quote]

Maybe something’s wrong with our system, but in our experience every time we reboot the PC (say, after Windows updates, or after a long power outage that outlasts the battery backup), no live TV channels will show up in WMC whether we wait 30 seconds or 30 minutes. I can’t remember now what the exact error message is; it may be the “subscription required” notice but I really am not sure at this point: we’ve been using the fix below for long enough that memory escapes.

The only way we’ve found to deal with the problem is to pull the CableCARD out from the InfiniTV, wait 20 seconds, and then slide it back in; then after a few seconds change from whatever channel we were on, and the new channel shows up on the screen. Then we can go back to the channel we wanted.

I can attribute that solution to a Comcast CSR who knew her stuff (and yes, it was a “she”).

 

[jeam]

[quote=Aaron Ledger]Once paired, there is no reason to fear that the CableCARD will lose the pairing with your tuner. Also, you should be able to run the TV setup in WMC anytime the urge strikes without worry. I have done it hundreds of times. You should never have to unplug your CableCARD or get a “usual” no tuner message.[/quote]

Great to hear about being able to run TV setup as often as needed. Obviously I don’t do it very often, or I would have known not to worry!

As for needing to unplug the CableCARD, see my next reply…

 

[jeam]

UPDATE (so to speak): Desperation drove me to try the Live TV update, despite concerns that we might end up with even less program data than before. It worked. For future reference by others who might be facing a similar issue, here’s what we did:

First I re-ran TV Setup, went through the entire selection reconfirming our previous settings. I ignored the CableCARD steps, figuring (hoping, really — a second concern was that we might have to start jumping through the CableCARD pairing hoops all over again) that it had already been paired long ago and didn’t need re-pairing. After getting the channel lineup information, I let WMC download the guide data, fingers crossed.

This time it worked! Despite a worrisome message that the guide could not be downloaded, upon clicking on Finish I went to the guide and we had 13 days of programming for all channels. This is actually about three more days’ worth of data than we’ve had in the last several months.

Then things got “interesting” again. I honed in on a particular current program and selected it to watch. Instead of getting a show, we got a “tuner conflict” error message claiming that all four tuners were in use.  Huh? This was impossible — we were neither watching anything at all, nor recording anything. What’s more, the Ceton Diagnostic tool informed us that only two of the four tuners were actually tuned to any channel. It was also having problems with the CableCARD “entitlement,” the last step in that part of the diagnostics.

After pondering our next move, we decided to shut down the PC completely (not “restart”) and reboot. Launched WMC and got the usual “no tuner” message which we have learned to deal with by unplugging the CableCARD, waiting 20 seconds, plugging back in, and switching to another channel.

And now we have all our cable and local channels back, plus almost two weeks of program data.

WAF has shot way back up… for the time being.

Michael, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[jeam]

Hi,

Do you mean re-running it for the same Zip code? During my research I’ve seen where some people suggested re-running the TV setup using a different Zip code but where the provider has the same channel lineup. However, in our area there aren’t any alternative Zip codes that offer the same lineup.

Given the problems we’ve been having — if we run the Live TV setup for our same area, is there a chance that we’ll end up with NO program data at all? Then we’d be even worse off.

 

[jeam]

Hi,

Thanks for all the ideas!

The solution was in fact to click on one of the mysterious little buttons on the remote that I hadn’t tried out yet.   We were watching a recording, clicked on the button, and it took us to the channel that was tuned before we started to run the recorded show.

The instructions for this cheap remote aren’t very helpful. Now that we know that 7MC does work for us (or should I say, for my wife), maybe it’s time to invest in a good remote where they spent more than 10 minutes preparing the manual.

I can see the problem with going back to live TV and landing in the middle of a show that we’re recording. But in our years of DVR use, this has happened maybe twice. Most of the time we have one of the news networks tuned in as our “default” live TV channel, so it’s not really an issue for us.

Thanks again!

 

[jeam]

I took the plunge today and reinstalled the Windows Updates with fingers crossed.

Happy to report that the system didn’t blow up or break down — everything’s working perfectly!

Thanks again for your help.

 

[jeam]

OK, signal-to-noise is much easier to understand, and your analogy helps a ton.

I’ll reinstall the Windows updates next time my wife is out all day…

Thanks again.

 

[jeam]

Thanks for the information. I’ll check/monitor the values you mentioned (although a Web search suggests that the Eb/No concept is way beyond my liberal-arts mind). On Saturday I removed the (capped) splitter that used to run to the PC and the DVR, and now the Ceton is connected directly to the coax coming out of the wall.

Bottom line — is it “safe” to install last week’s Windows updates without fear of breaking the HTPC system? I know there are no guarantees, I’m just seeking your learned opinion.  The concern is that the CableCARD did cease to work precisely when I installed those updates, OTOH it’s not prudent to just stop updating the OS.

Much appreciated!

 

[jeam]

It’s a Motorola M-Card, card version 1315.

Here are some other specs, in case they help:

Ceton InfiniTV Driver Package Version: 1.3.0.2-20110901

Diagnostic Tool Version: 1.3.91.11222

InfiniTV Firmware Version: 1.0.9.5; Hardware Version: 4884

Thanks for looking into this.

[jeam]

Matt,

Thanks very much for the info and the links, they were highly informative. Sounds like powerline is improving but MoCA is still leading.

 

[jeam]

Hmm, I’m not getting the link you mentioned. When I browse to the Ceton webpage, select the CableCARD tab, and then click on “Conditional Access,” the only link that’s on the page that comes up is for refreshing the page. There’s nothing about SubExpireTime. None of the other links on the CableCARD page say anything about that, either.

I can send/attach a JPG screenshot if you think that might help.

 

[jeam]

That’s good to know, thanks.

MoCA is looking more and more like the best candidate.

 

[Author]

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