Beta firmware candidate for InfiniTV available - 15.1.13.152

Ask fellow members about Ceton's infiniTV tuners here.
Forum rules
Ceton no longer participate in this forum. Official support may still be handled via the Ceton Ticket system.
arbeleg

Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:29 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#61

Post by arbeleg » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:17 am

Thanks, cwinfield. Knowing that someone's got this combination working is helpful.

The CableCARD is a Cisco card. The TA is a STA1520. I'm fairly sure the card is good and has been provisioned properly -- I was on the phone with TWC CableCARD support group and they had me check a number of settings in the Ceton diagnostics to confirm it. The TA appears in Ceton's device web page and shows "Downstream RF locked and receiving valid downstream messages", "Upstream connection complete", and "Authenticated" and "TR Ready to resolve".

After the switch to TWC, I have rerun Digital Cable Advisor, WMC TV Setup, auto selected the channel list, and the channels I've tested are all enabled. The HTPC hardware itself has not changed at all from when I had WOW service. The only thing that has been swapped is the CableCARD itself.

When I try unsuccessfully to tune a Copying Prohibited channel, the corresponding tuner's web page shows a Last Resolve of "Tuning resolution cannot be determined at this time (Channel not available)"

After doing some more exploring through the settings and logs, I think the channels affected are all Copy Once (CCI 02) channels. The channels that seem to work are Copy Freely (CCI 00) and mostly seem to be the local stations. The channels seem to exist in the channel map, but when I try to do so I am getting "Copying Prohibited" from WMC (no error number appears on the screen).

These evening I tried some steps suggested by Ceton tech support to repair PlayReady, including running sfc/scannow and renaming mspr.hds, but nothing has helped so far.

cwinfield

Posts: 575
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2013 1:14 am
Location: Monroe, NC

HTPC Specs: Show details

#62

Post by cwinfield » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:55 am

Well it looks like either your ta is having problems or cablecard isn't working correctly. I have a few suggestions: First hard reboot/unplug the TA, make sure it's plugged in a usb 2.0 plug as they are finicky on usb 3.0. It might just be the cablecard is not working right in which case your at the mercy of TWC support.

arbeleg

Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:29 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#63

Post by arbeleg » Thu Feb 12, 2015 3:11 pm

Thanks again, I will try those. I'm not sure if the TA is plugged into a 2.0 or 3.0 slot, but I think the motherboard has both, so it's worth trying a different one.

mdavej

Posts: 1477
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 6:52 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#64

Post by mdavej » Thu Feb 12, 2015 3:42 pm

TA looks fine from what you've posted. CC is the culprit somehow, still not provisioned properly (once took me 10 tries with my cable company). Sometimes they have to unprovision first or you have to get a new card. With the changes from WOW to TWC, database is probably all out of whack on their end too.

signcarver

Posts: 115
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 8:39 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#65

Post by signcarver » Thu Feb 12, 2015 5:02 pm

arbeleg wrote: I just switched from WOW (where I was having the CableCARD legacy copy protection problem this firmware is supposed to fix) to Time Warner. I am encountering "Copying Prohibited" messages on a number of channels, though there are many that come in just fine. The symptoms are very similar to the legacy copy protection problems I was having at WOW (which they patched by downgrading the firmware on the CableCARD), so I was hopeful that this firmware would fix the TWC problem. But so far it hasn't.
If you were interested in unprotected programming, the switch was probably your first mistake (if it could have been avoided) as TWC "always" protects all but locals so it requires a properly configured WMC that has passed the DCA, updated playready, and not using anything that breaks HDCP. The new beta does "nothing" for TWC as they don't use legacy protections and typically protect everything but locals... (there may be an occasional mistake on a local that it might help with)
arbeleg wrote: The TA appears in Ceton's device web page and shows "Downstream RF locked and receiving valid downstream messages", "Upstream connection complete", and "Authenticated" and "TR Ready to resolve".
When I try unsuccessfully to tune a Copying Prohibited channel, the corresponding tuner's web page shows a Last Resolve of "Tuning resolution cannot be determined at this time (Channel not available)"

After doing some more exploring through the settings and logs, I think the channels affected are all Copy Once (CCI 02) channels. The channels that seem to work are Copy Freely (CCI 00) and mostly seem to be the local stations. The channels seem to exist in the channel map, but when I try to do so I am getting "Copying Prohibited" from WMC (no error number appears on the screen).


If the channels are in the channel map, try without the TA to see if the card is properly paired (some areas of TWC act more like charter and may put some channels in the map that are actually SDV and these would have a frequency of 999MHz... if you see that they need the TA, many areas of TWC require so much SDV that they neglect the "traditional" cablecard map and that map often has the wrong information, usually for about a week or so a couple times a year). You also didn't do the main step after looking at the status page of the TA as that frequently reports ready even after it has problems. What I have to do to ensure the TA is indeed "working" is to go to the TA diagnostics pages (diagnostic menu)... typically on the latest firmware, after a few days for me, proper communication between the TA and tuner cease and on cetons this will usually manifest in not being able to see the diagnostic pages (I also have seen other issues with the beta and can't find the tuner more frequently) ... on primes I get the same "experience" after about 3 months but can still view the diagnostics pages. Though I have been able to get them to sync up again by rebooting the TA, unplugging the USB and/or rebooting the tuner (by command), usually the sure fire way of getting it back is to pull power from the tuner (USB and eth make this easy... with pci-e I have to physically flip switch on computer (not just press power, and because I see 100's of devices with capacitor problems during a week, I also hold in the power button to discharge)... I also often encounter this on my USB version whenever I reboot the PC (such as after an update) but the full shutdown command does work then lets me power it back on without incident, provided it has communication when shut down... if that communication ceases, it needs the power off. I do find a script to reboot the tuner to make these issues not manifest, but I prefer to run this script at most once a week and the newest betas need me to do it "daily" and there isn't a time that is convenient each day so I have switched back to the old non-beta and back to running the script every 2 weeks.

By the way I mention this as I usually see issues with the TA... but when connected, the TA usually will also fail on the locals as it provides all resolution... for me, it may not totally fail as I also have them as clear qam and though it failed tuning channel 1005, it may work tuning 73.2. Typically the problem I see with cisco cards is they are not staged and will tell you that on the cablecard CA screen (will say Status: Not Staged, rather than Ready) Recently someone with a prime had one not validated which affects anything with protection on it, but I haven't come across that and been able to see how that was determined by the tuner as it said ready.

Edit I was thinking of your error message and I believe mine was showing more of a timeout message or communications error while yours sounds more like a message from the TA that it currently can't get the map or can't request it to be put on the wire... check rf status (ta diagnostics) particularly retransmission on the second page and other pages for other errors (b'cast only comes to mind)

arbeleg

Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:29 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#66

Post by arbeleg » Thu Feb 12, 2015 7:18 pm

Thanks, signcarver.
If you were interested in unprotected programming, the switch was probably your first mistake (if it could have been avoided) as TWC "always" protects all but locals so it requires a properly configured WMC that has passed the DCA, updated playready, and not using anything that breaks HDCP.
I had been with WOW for 7 years, and happy with their service overall. I likely would have stayed without even looking around had they not raised my monthly costs 60%. Switched to TWC because they offered more channels and faster Internet for less money than I'd been paying even before the price hike.

I'm not specifically interested in unprotected programming, just in being able to view and DVR shows that are part of my subscription through WMC and extenders. Not trying to copy shows to another system, burn DVDs, or anything like that. If the CableCARD/PlayReady/DRM works as its supposed to, I think I'm satisfied.

HDMI output from the HTPC is running through a Yamaha RX-V871 receiver, then via HDMI to the TV. The RX-V871 is HDCP-compliant, so I think the whole chain is, and in any event, the problem persisted even when I tried running HDMI directly from the HTPC to the TV.
What I have to do to ensure the TA is indeed "working" is to go to the TA diagnostics pages (diagnostic menu)... typically on the latest firmware, after a few days for me, proper communication between the TA and tuner cease and on cetons this will usually manifest in not being able to see the diagnostic pages (I also have seen other issues with the beta and can't find the tuner more frequently) ... on primes I get the same "experience" after about 3 months but can still view the diagnostics pages.
I can get to the TA diagnostics page. The RF Statistics pages shows:
CURRENT FDC
Freq: 75.000 MHz
DAVIC: Connected
Status: Locked
Level: 5 dBmV
Seconds: 428643
Corr Bytes: 1188
Uncor Blks: 855
Errs Avg/Inst: 0 / 0
Total Bytes: 4087839678
S/N: 30 dB
CURRENT QAM
Freq: 639.000 MHz
Tuning Mode: QAM-256
Status: Locked
Level: 2 dBmV

S/N: 36 dB
Seconds: 359
Corr Bytes: 0
Uncor Blks: 0
Errs Avg/Inst: 0 / 0
EQ Gain: 1.0
CURRENT RDC
Freq: 16.500 MHz
Power: 54 dBmV
Delay: 635 uSec
Retrans: 0
Nothing jumps out at me, but I'm not an expert at reading the diagnostics.

I'll be able to try powering down all the equipment, and checking the USB connection for the TA later this evening.

Thanks for the continued suggestions.

Sancho

Posts: 160
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:52 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#67

Post by Sancho » Thu Feb 12, 2015 7:27 pm

JohnW248 wrote:If you can get to the web gui with the 169.254.x.xxx address, go to the system tab and click on network settings and see if you can reset the card there.

If not, you'll have to see if Ceton has a magic trick or if you have to send the card back to reflash.
Tried that. The card is not bricked, thankfully. It occurred to me to re-build the bridge, at which point the Diag Tool discovered the card. I tried all manner of things to reset the IP, including the method you mention, and a total uninstall or three. The only way to access the card is to create the bridge and set the IP into the previously configured network (10.0.0.0). I tried forcing the Ceton network device to use 192.168.200.1 and gave the NIC 192.168.200.5 and bridged them. Nada. I tried changing the static IP under Network Settings from 10.0.0.2 to 192.168.200.1. Didn't take. Then the reinstalls. Nada. It's like there's a file that's locked and not being uninstalled or rewritten with a new install that's got hold of that previously assigned IP. I don't know how else to explain why the same IP works on a fresh install, esp. when I searched the registry for the IP and it was not found. There are some *ocur*.inf files I want to look at, preferably in Safe Mode or via a Linux boot CD (or HDD in a different PC, worst case).

At least the card works and I can assign a tuner or two to a different PC. I don't really need four at that location. It's a pity I'm stuck at this firmware, but at least I can block EAS forwarding, which was my main reason for flashing that firmware (now two generations old; sometime last year).

Since I bought the card in July 2013, it's out of warranty. Ceton made a nice offer on a discounted new or refurbished InfiniTV 6 (don't make the 4 anymore), but sadly the 6 doesn't support network tuners, per the Requirements page on their site. That would have been the ideal solution, as those two extra tuners could be shared, and I'd still have 4 tuners on both hosts. As it is, I'll hope that the present configuration holds. I wouldn't even have known there was a problem, if I hadn't thought to try this latest firmware. Go figure.

mdavej

Posts: 1477
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 6:52 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#68

Post by mdavej » Thu Feb 12, 2015 7:42 pm

^^^
Someone recently posted a way to do network tuners on the InfiniTV 6 PCIe. The ETH 6 of course has network tuners by definition.

Sancho

Posts: 160
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:52 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#69

Post by Sancho » Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:58 pm

mdavej wrote:^^^
Someone recently posted a way to do network tuners on the InfiniTV 6 PCIe. The ETH 6 of course has network tuners by definition.
Thanks for the tip. If this InfiniTV 4 ever dies, I hope I remember to look for that. For the moment, I think I'll save my money.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tried a couple more times to reset the network. Wouldn't go back to DHCP mode. That, and the fact that the new firmware won't write to the card means the NVRAM is probably corrupt. At least it remembers the old IP. I'm now an expert in setting up shared tuners :mrgreen:

cwinfield

Posts: 575
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2013 1:14 am
Location: Monroe, NC

HTPC Specs: Show details

#70

Post by cwinfield » Thu Feb 12, 2015 11:11 pm

Sancho wrote:Tried a couple more times to reset the network. Wouldn't go back to DHCP mode. That, and the fact that the new firmware won't write to the card means the NVRAM is probably corrupt. At least it remembers the old IP. I'm now an expert in setting up shared tuners :mrgreen:
Are you sure it just didn't work because you attempted to update while bridged? I had a similar problems when I did the same thing. It's not like Ceton cared to explain not to update your card while bridged beforehand. I had to use the wizard to remove the network bridging, then reset to defaults. It may have not worked the first time I tried either, I changed pci-e slots in attempt to get it recognized. It also won't allow you to install those files you referred to because it is sharing tuners with a networked pc which is also what probably interferes with the update process causing in to fail.

arbeleg

Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:29 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#71

Post by arbeleg » Fri Feb 13, 2015 1:25 am

Though I have been able to get them to sync up again by rebooting the TA, unplugging the USB and/or rebooting the tuner (by command), usually the sure fire way of getting it back is to pull power from the tuner
OK, got a chance to try this tonight. I powered down and unplugged the TA and the PC. The TA was in a USB 2.0 slot, not a 3.0, for what that's worth.

For simplicity I've taken the Tuning Adapter and my A/V receiver out of the path. Cable goes straight from the wall into the Ceton, and the HDMI out from the PC goes straight into the TV.

The Ceton diagnostics page shows the CableCARD has been authorized (CP Auth) and the EMMs processed is ~70 (TWC CC support asked about this multiple times on different calls, though I don't know exactly what it is).

I'm still getting the "Copying Prohibited" message on CCI 02/Copy Once channels.

After triple checking things on their side, TWC CC support said that the WMC message "... You can only play this content on the same computer on which it was recorded" indicates that the problem is somewhere after the CableCARD. In other words, some combination of the Ceton, WMC, and/or PlayReady somehow thinks the Live TV stream was recorded on a different computer. Even though the tuner, WMC, and video storage hard drive are all part of the same PC.

Does that make sense? Is PlayReady the culprit here?

cwinfield

Posts: 575
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2013 1:14 am
Location: Monroe, NC

HTPC Specs: Show details

#72

Post by cwinfield » Fri Feb 13, 2015 1:59 am

arbeleg wrote:The Ceton diagnostics page shows the CableCARD has been authorized (CP Auth) and the EMMs processed is ~70 (TWC CC support asked about this multiple times on different calls, though I don't know exactly what it is).

I'm still getting the "Copying Prohibited" message on CCI 02/Copy Once channels.

After triple checking things on their side, TWC CC support said that the WMC message "... You can only play this content on the same computer on which it was recorded" indicates that the problem is somewhere after the CableCARD. In other words, some combination of the Ceton, WMC, and/or PlayReady somehow thinks the Live TV stream was recorded on a different computer. Even though the tuner, WMC, and video storage hard drive are all part of the same PC.

Does that make sense? Is PlayReady the culprit here?
I doubt it is playready as you have tried everything related to it. It sounds like the cablecard thinks it belongs to a different tuner and is doing it's job by denying service. I would insist they send out a tech with a new cablecard(s). It sounds like TWC being as unhelpful as usual, is it any wonder why they are considered the second worst cable company?

Here is a good thread for playready. http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... ady#p82850 You could try post #34 if you want but I doubt that is your issue.
ekotz wrote:The EMMs, or Entitlement Management Messages, essentially tell the CableCARD what it is authorized to decrypt. The counter you are looking at tells the number of EMMs received since the last time the CableCARD was reset - this means that if you power-cycle the InfiniTV, it will go to 0 (as the CableCARD loses power). This is expected, not indicative of a problem, and does not cause an issue. The CableCARD still has the subscription information that was previously sent to it.

There is no problem here for us to "fix" - this is all expected behavior and everything working as designed. The EMMs received counter being at 0 will not prevent you from receiving content on a properly authorized CableCARD. Even if this was a problem (which it is not) EMMs are a concept unique to the CableCARD and the InfiniTV has no involvement in them, so any fix would have to come from the Cable TV provider or CableCARD manufacturer
Last edited by cwinfield on Fri Feb 13, 2015 2:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

Sancho

Posts: 160
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:52 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#73

Post by Sancho » Fri Feb 13, 2015 2:05 am

cwinfield wrote:
Sancho wrote:Tried a couple more times to reset the network. Wouldn't go back to DHCP mode. That, and the fact that the new firmware won't write to the card means the NVRAM is probably corrupt. At least it remembers the old IP. I'm now an expert in setting up shared tuners :mrgreen:
Are you sure it just didn't work because you attempted to update while bridged? I had a similar problems when I did the same thing. It's not like Ceton cared to explain not to update your card while bridged beforehand. I had to use the wizard to remove the network bridging, then reset to defaults. It may have not worked the first time I tried either, I changed pci-e slots in attempt to get it recognized. It also won't allow you to install those files you referred to because it is sharing tuners with a networked PC which is also what probably interferes with the update process causing in to fail.
That was my original thought, thus all my attempts to reset it. Hey, if Ceton's willing to admit it's defective, who am I to argue. Sure was a royal PITA getting it set up again to share one lousy tuner, but I think I sussed it in the end.

I did try uninstalling the drivers from the client PC during one attempt. Anyway, I don't care enough about further firmware updates to upset this delicately balanced apple cart. Just ain't worth the bother. No wonder they stopped supporting network tuner sharing. It's a great idea in theory. C'est la vie.

User avatar
Bill

Posts: 60
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:23 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#74

Post by Bill » Fri Feb 13, 2015 6:49 pm

anyone else's card fail to update? i have two in my media center and the first one upgraded perfectly yet the second always fails. Any ideas?
HTPCs, InfiniTVs, and Extenders OH MY!

signcarver

Posts: 115
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 8:39 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#75

Post by signcarver » Fri Feb 13, 2015 7:55 pm

If they are on/in the same computer, often updates will go better if you only have one connected at a time. Also as mentioned they often don't update when bridged.

In general, I say that many of ceton's products fail to update after a certain number of attempts (how many varies from 1 to 100+) but has plagued their products for quite some time* including the echo/android fiasco. Personally I have been fairly lucky and only one device has failed a firmware update (I have installed many and personally have 6 ceton devices)

*in reality it is probably a fairly small percentage but I don't believe I have ever seen so many reports on multiple devices from a mfg that fail to update firmware so I blame their chip supplier or whomever builds the devices for them.

Sancho

Posts: 160
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:52 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#76

Post by Sancho » Fri Feb 13, 2015 9:02 pm

I guess a good question for the thread is: has anyone managed to successful apply the update while the adapter is bridged?

I may have done so last year with an earlier Beta candidate release, but I can't recall when I started sharing tuners on that PC.

Rew452

Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2012 9:38 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#77

Post by Rew452 » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:43 am

FWIW I have been using this firmware for a couple of weeks now and overall have found channel change times are for the most part snappier much of the time but as the memory usage increases things slow down. Kinda like another poster said " Seems like a memory leak" somewhere. But this one is better.

But this slowdown at least for me has been observed on most of the FW releases that I have used. The only way I have found to relieve it was to reboot 6ETH.

On Comcast no TA

Rew

JohnW248

Posts: 786
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:23 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#78

Post by JohnW248 » Tue Feb 17, 2015 2:12 am

Are you tracking you uptime vs memory usage?
I'm still on 14.4.6.21 right now
5 days 12 hours 25 minutes 54 seconds
14796/28052 kB SDRAM

The only thing I've noticed is the very first tune after rebooting the ETH is very slow with sound first and about 20 second or so delay before picture, after that no slow down over time.
TWC Cisco with 1520 TA

arbeleg

Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:29 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#79

Post by arbeleg » Tue Feb 17, 2015 3:52 am

Just to close the loop on my issue, I ended up reformatting and doing a clean install of WIn7 and WMC. It's working now, but sure was frustrating that it had to get to this point.

I'm grateful to everyone here who offered suggestions and things to try.

tzr916

Posts: 445
Joined: Tue May 28, 2013 11:56 pm
Location: Stockton CA

HTPC Specs: Show details

#80

Post by tzr916 » Tue Feb 17, 2015 4:38 am

JohnW248 wrote:Are you tracking you uptime vs memory usage?
I'm still on 14.4.6.21 right now
5 days 12 hours 25 minutes 54 seconds
14796/28052 kB SDRAM
no TA
v14.4.6.21
35 days 5 hours
21864/28052 kB SDRAM

Tick-tock... Leaving soon for a 12 day vacation, will reboot before I leave to be safe, and check in with chrome remote desktop when possible.

Post Reply