InfiniTV6 PCIe - Tuning adapter required soon

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SciFiGeek

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InfiniTV6 PCIe - Tuning adapter required soon

#1

Post by SciFiGeek » Sun Apr 01, 2018 12:13 am

I have Spectrum in Northern KY and apparently a Tuning adapter is in my near future due to upgrades. I am overwhelmed with joy as the only significant thing I remember reading in the forums years ago is that they are a general hassle. I have been happily operating without one for years.

I have Windows 7 64 bit and the Ceton Infinitv 6 PCI-E. Yes in hindsight I would have gotten the Ethernet. What do I need to know for setup and anything special to know since I am adding one to an existing setup?

Thanks for any insight. I don't know if my search was bad but I did not find much about TA's searching.

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Crash2009

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#2

Post by Crash2009 » Mon Apr 02, 2018 11:42 pm

I have never actually had to use a TA. However I have done a lot of research on TA with ETH6 and the PCiE model InfiniTV6. As you know, the ETH6 has its own USB and NIC, and any problems in those two area's are a manufacturer's problem, usually solved with Firmware or Driver Software. The main problem with the PCiE model is that it rely's on your PC's USB and NIC. So, USB and NIC have to be "Error Free and Optimal"

For the NIC we usually use the manufacturer's best driver. USB is usually Win7's problem... Ceton has a USB Hotfix at their website.

Now that your post is out of the New Post Section, I am sure you will get some more qualified responses.

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#3

Post by SciFiGeek » Sun Apr 15, 2018 4:49 am

Morale of the story so far...
1 go directly to store to get TA if you get one of these letters
2 Ask them if the equipment is provisioned to your account or get the direct support number. Apparently the Spectrum cablecard support number serving at least NC and NKY number right now is 1-866-532-2598

The mission so far...

Step 1 call number on letter that says need TA to get one.
Step 2 - wait while someone orders one
Step 3 - wait a week
Step 4 - call back - spend excessive time on hold to be told to pick one up in store... Store closed for weekend
Step 5 get someone to pick up TA during week
Step 6 Next Saturday,two weeks later finally have time to try it out - primetime recording conflicts
Step 7 put thing inline with existing branch off splitter for tv
Step 8 Call support after leaving for errand and TA not training up - Equipment not provisioned... should train up when home
Step 9 Call support again, TA still not trained up - Technician Scheduled for Monday - annoyance about week delay expressed
Step 10 Remove TA, put everything back even run restore point from earlier in the day to kill TA driver for good measure
Step 11 Call support again, No PCR lock and no signal seen but channel list and headend connection seen ??? - Call escalated to dispatch - might maybe see someone on Sunday - Media Center Setup also sees no cable signal - At least OTA intact, setup cancelled
Step 12 Coax Dongle feels a little loose... Cuss repeatedly, order new one from Amazon to arrive Monday.
Step 13 Return to thread here... Need to check on USB hotfix from ceton. Although seems familiar from previous trouble shooting, I may have gotten that a while ago. At any rate, bigger fish to fry...

I did re-seat the cablecard (power off), the tech tried pairing it again but no ping back... Expecting support issue, dongle issue or something far worse... Problem is how can I rule out support issue?

So the dongle, if has some play like I can push it all the way in or have it catch to keep from disconnecting like 1 or 2 mm out. Any thoughts on best position or best tricks for not taxing the dongle?

Next thought is borrowing the client box for the whole house DVR if things do not get straight early and connect TA in its stead and see if it will train up. I guess I am also off to kick Playon and see if it wants to play nice. Sunday is Walking Dead finale and Fear premier with the crossover...

Topology may be a problem for TA. Since Cable modem and obviously media center is my equipment, I surge suppressed the cable line. So it looks like cable in wall to 20db passive amplifier to surge suppressor to 2 way splitter to cable modem and either computer and TA then computer depending on setup. My hunch is that there may be reflections coming back from surge suppressor between TA and Cable Modem. But I am guessing blind as I have seen nothing on specs/frequencies TA's use. Naturally, everything worked before TA attempt.

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#4

Post by Crash2009 » Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:20 am

I sent an email and a private message 2 John W. he's the best I've seen with those things..

You could start with going to the infinity TV driver software and look around on the various tabs for errors and stuff. On the very last tab of the Infiniti driver software there's a thing called Advanced logging you could turn that on reboot and start logging all the problems that the TA is giving you. Don't forget to shut it off after you've collected your Diagnostics it will keep on going forever and fill your hard drive.

Another place to find good information on what's going on is to go to your tuners web page you will have to dig that up yourself, I forgot the address. The address is something like 192.168. 200. 2

When somebody gets here that knows what they're talking about they're going to ask you about the numbers on those pages so get familiar with finding them.

As far as cabling goes the TA and your ceton tuner should be on the same splitter so they get the signal at exactly the same time.

Check the TA instructions and make sure you're plugged into the correct type of USB i e USB 2 USB 3

Rerun your infinity TV driver software and choose repair..... you might have to put a check mark in one of the boxes to install ta

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#5

Post by Crash2009 » Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:28 am

Search Tuning Adapter here at TGB.

Quite a lot written on it

Here's one to get you started. Sounds like this guy had every problem you could get, but he eliminated them all and got it working

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 894#p40894

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#6

Post by JohnW248 » Sun Apr 15, 2018 1:12 pm

A couple of points to get started. What type of cable card do you have and therefore which TA do you have. They're made by both Moto and Cisco. I'm on a Cisco headend and thus have a 1520.

Since you're on the internal card that means that the TA will have to connect to the computer since the tuner request will go to the TA via USB. Very important DO NOT USE USB 3.0 to connect the TA (they were designed and made long before USB 3.0 and don't play well with USB 3.0). If you can get a good signal for a cable modem, you shouldn't have a problem with the TA signal. But first you need to be able to see the TA. When it's connected you should get a connection sound for the USB on the computer. Then open the Ceton web interface and click on the Tuner Resolver tab. You should see something there, report back and we'll go on from there. I don't have personal experience with the Moto device but others do, I do have a lot of experience with the Cisco 1520 from the first support on Win 7 with the ATI tuner and forward from there to both Ceton and SD.

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#7

Post by JohnW248 » Sun Apr 15, 2018 2:03 pm

Since this is a new set-up here are a few item.

1. The TA has to talk to the cableCARD in the tuner. It takes over the channel map functions so the cableCARD asks the TA for the channel frequency and then the TA tells the cableCARD. To do this the TA must physically connect to the computer via USB.
2. The TA needs a program to talk to the computer, this is supplied by the Ceton program. If you didn't install it originally you'll need to re-install the Ceton program to get the TA support.
3. Physically install the TA in the following manner: Connect the raw cable to the TA in RF, connect the RF out to the Tuner (there is a little amp in the TA to offset the signal loss). Connect the supplied USB cable from the TA to the computer (don't use USB 3.0 as per above) and then supply power to the TA. You should (if its a Cisco) see a green light come on solid and then go off and start flashing. That's talking to the headend and getting the IP address for the TA. The flashing rate will get faster and eventually turn solid when the TA if fully booted up.
4. With the TA program installed in the Ceton (with the program re-install) open the web GUI for the Ceton, Click the tuner tab and make sure everything looks normal. Click the CableCARD tab and make sure that the CableCARD is locked and has a good OOB signal (both the TA and the CableCARD on Cisco normally operate at 74.5) I usually open several cableCARD tabs to make sure everything is OK. (From the cableCARD tab you'll find the links to the cable card mid way on the page, right click and open in new tab for Conditional Access, DAVIC, and CP info (go to page 2) and then in the main GUI go to the Tuner Resolver tab, if the light is solid and everything works you'll see ready, if not you'll see some other message. Midway on that page is a diagnostic map link, right click it and open in new tab as well.

If you get that far, report back and we'll see what's going on.

BTW if they haven't switched on the SDV server yet you can still get TV without the TA connected. If you unplug the TA with the coax feeding through it, you'll lose the signal since the amp will be shut off. AND remember that the Ceton tuner is a one way device and support can't see it, you have to give them feedback from you cableCARD tabs that the unit is paired and locked. The TA is two way since it talks upstream to get switched digital assignments and requests and thus support can see it and its signal levels just like they can see your cable modem and signal levels.

And one warning. If you are on a Cisco system running a Ceton Tuner DO NOT open the cableCARD Diagnostics tab which will tell you the current program for copy protection and updates. Doing so will trigger the card to reset and if you're watching or recording something at the time you'll loose the picture while the card reset.

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#8

Post by SciFiGeek » Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:31 am

New dongle from amazon arrived.

I got home just in time to attach it. I think coincidentally Win7 took its sweet time applying an update on that restart.

With dongle attached Ceton Diagnostics told me to reinstall because TA driver not installed. I did a repair. It says to reinstall again after reboot but with a slightly different message... Says restart is required after second repair. I have OTA tuners recording stuff through 11:00p ECT now so I pushed back cable recordings starting in the midnight hour.

Tuning adapter is an ARRIS (Motorolla) MTR700. My cablecard is Motorolla. Cablecard tab in web GUI says it is a version 1573.

In several hours I'll kick the driver. Initial signal pass through observation for Spectrum of NKY formerly Time Warner Cable...
It takes a long time to tune. Made the mistake of telling to record one of these channels... MCE is stupid and won't just start another recording for the same episode... Stops other recording. I hate this bug.

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#9

Post by SciFiGeek » Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:43 am

So this is weird... All my channels seem to be working with the TA not sync'd (flasing amber, not the fabled green, apparently supposed to have same behavior as CISCO) and still holding for restart... I'm touching nothing until I get a recording error.

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#10

Post by JohnW248 » Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:08 am

SciFiGeek wrote:So this is weird... All my channels seem to be working with the TA not sync'd (flasing amber, not the fabled green, apparently supposed to have same behavior as CISCO) and still holding for restart... I'm touching nothing until I get a recording error.
With the TA installed and providing a channel map you should get all non-switched channels (have they even started switched digital video yet?). Once that starts the TA will have to be "synched up" as you said or recognized and authorized by the headend. On the Ceton GUI under Tuning resolver you should see upstream and downstream. That's important because it means that the TA has contacted the headend and is authorized to send requests. When a switched channel is NOT on your node, the TA will request it and the headend will send it to your node and notify the TA of the frequency. There is a record kept by the TA of various switched channels and their frequencies that have been requested by your and your neighbors and are active at the node. l these are connected without a request but the TA tells the headend that you're logged on. If you're the last one and not recording but watching a long program you may see an altert on your screen that the channel is about to be shut down press any button on your remote to continue. If you don't the channel will go dark and release the bandwidth back to the headend. If you do signal you're still watching the timer will reset for another alter. These are about 3 hours long so you can hit them watching a car auction or football game. Again if other people are watching or recording the same channel, you won't get the shut down notice.

The moto uses a slightly different OOB frequency for the cableCARD and TA than the Cisco system but all that data is available on the various tabs for the cableCARD and TA internal diagnostics. Once you have a working and look at the results you'll know what to look at when it fails and sometimes the communication between the TA and the tuner drops but a reboot usually fixes that and there are some services you can stop and restart that will fix somethings as well.

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#11

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Apr 18, 2018 6:20 am

JohnW248 wrote:There is a record kept by the TA of various switched channels and their frequencies that have been requested by your and your neighbors and are active at the node. l these are connected without a request but the TA tells the headend that you're logged on. If you're the last one and not recording but watching a long program you may see an altert on your screen that the channel is about to be shut down press any button on your remote to continue. If you don't the channel will go dark and release the bandwidth back to the headend.


what happens if WMC is the last one using that channel and happens to be recording at the time. WMC will be unable to press the any button on the remote. Is there something going on in the background between WMC and the cable card that tell the TA that WMC is using the channel for a recording?

And then the second question would be what if WMC is set to record an unpopular Channel in the neighborhood, and the head end decides that the neighborhood doesn't want it, so the channel gets sucked back up the line to save bandwidth. Now I'm sure that when WMC gets ready to do a scheduled future recording it probably starts yakking at the cable card and wherever else it has to to get this recording started. Does WMC need a little more lead time ..... like start recording 15 minutes early to give the TA enough time to get the channel back in the neighborhood?

Thanks for showing up John

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#12

Post by SciFiGeek » Thu Apr 19, 2018 12:34 pm

Ceton Infinitv6 PCIE Driver Install for Tuning Adapter in existing setup:
Run Setup
Hit Change button (not repair as suggested above)
Ensure the SDV option is selected for install
Finish out the install wizard

Ok, that gem out of the way. They did hold off on the SDV rollout as surmised by Cablecard support. Apparently they had to wait until the headend figured out the Tuning adapters. Allegedly this is the last market for TA support to be added (made obvious suggestion for status website for rollout status and issues). Mine is working now but my system is not completely stable...

I had plugged it into a usb 3 port when it was first installed which I discovered auditing my install. I tried inserting it into a USB 2.0 port but it simply did not detect the TA there (assuming the port on the back of my MB is good, I'll check it out later). I mention this as my system often hangs shutting down and sometimes on startup since the TA install. Since boot and reboot time is very important, any advice or experience around this would be helpful. As is life, it is working now and during the week I am up against prime time recordings to try anything. Given the symptom the next troubleshooting schedule will be on the weekend. Unfortunately I don't have time to do much digging during the week. Could it be I need to circle back to the USB hotfix? I thought I installed it long ago. I'll have to dig that up too.

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#13

Post by Crash2009 » Sun Apr 22, 2018 3:53 am

Re hang on Startup..... Google that. The first suggestion please check your time starting with the BIOS you might have a dead battery on the motherboard. On my 7 box Windows was having some problems connecting to the time servers. This resulted and me being unable to run DirecTV now, so I went over to what time is it. Com and sure enough I was off by a minute or two, I change the time manually and DirecTV started working. Windows 7 has a known,,,, for a long time,,,, time problem. There are few fixes for it around here but just set it manually for now and see if that helps.

The second suggestion is 2 looking device manager and check for devices that have question marks or exclamation marks. If you find any they need a little help likely new drivers. In device manager make sure to check the different views and look for question marks and exclamation marks, view devices by connection is one example. Sometimes a question mark will show up in one View but not in view number 2 so check all the views.

Also during a reboot you can select boot logging and if Windows fails to start or stalls for a long time you can see which driver it is stumbling with. This next suggestion is test only.....this is not a fix. Google disable driver signing. Will take you to a website that will tell you how to use BCD edit to disable driver signing. Do a little reading on that to find out what if anything it might do for you.

Google clean boot to find out how to run Msconfig. Sometimes it's the same device or software causing hang in startup and shut down.

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