TV Service Unavailable?

[barnabas1969]

WTF? How could he have run the DCA without Media Center? Or... looked at the Guide... unless... he's smoking a t-joynt.

[tjoynt]

I WAS on Windows 7. Really still am, put Windows 8 install on a different OS drive.

After going through a bunch of stuff with support, they decided it was a software issue. I reinstalled Win7 a couple of times and did things differently 1 way or another, but still didn't work.

So I decided to try Windows 8. Not going to pay to upgrade Win8 if I don't even know if this card will work.

Sorry for the confusion, couldn't remember what I posted here and on the support site

[foxwood]

Reading back through the thread, I see why you tried Win8, but as you found out, adding WMC to Win8 is don't as easy as using Win7.

It sounds like you've got a bad (tuner) card, but I would have thought that Ceton could have confirmed that fairly easily.

[tjoynt]

They've said hardware is all good.
Diagnostics are all good, going to the web viewer thing, if i tune a channel on the diagnostic, it shows up with good signal on the web

EDIT:

About to re-install windows again, I found a different digital river link, the one i was using seems to be "Media Refresh". Gonna try without that and see.

One thing I did notice on the last couple installs is I never had the "Ceton" section on WMC like I remember having before. Any ideas?

[JohnW248]

Again, what version of Windows 7 are you installing and from what. You have to use at least Home Premium and you CANNOT use Enterprise. After you install Win7 you have to Activate it before you can get any of this stuff to work. CableCARD is funny and you have to pass the DCA and then when you install the cableCARD tuner there is an additional download and licensing that goes on with MS and it also installs Playready for the DRM. When you re-install Windows you are back to square one and have to do all this stuff over again. Make sure your install is activate, run the experience index before you start with media center, then run the dca with mc windowed so that you'll see the uac when it asks to make system changes, then install the Ceton drivers and card and then put in your cableCARD if the device and card are paired that should stick if not you'll have to go through it with the cable company again. Then run media center and tv set-up and choose your cableCARD tuner. Don't try any other tuners when you're doing this install to eliminate variables. If the card shows up in the web gui and tunes a channel when you work from the web gui, then the card is working and there is something in the way you have installed or activated windows and the dca.

[tjoynt]

Just installed Win7 Pro SP1 from USB drive. D/led from MS digitalriver. Did it this time without the CableCARD inserted
Ran all updates, activated, ran the Windows system test, ran DCA in WMC and passed, installed Ceton software, put in CableCARD, ran TV Setup in WMC, and nothing.
Turned off Firewall, nothing.
Checked Ceton Diagnostics before and after firewall turn off, and everything is green. Can tune channels just fine there.
Possible I could run WMC on my laptop and see the tuners as network tuners?

EDIT: Looking now, it looks like WMC is actually tuning the channels correctly.
If I bring up the WebUI when i tune Channel 403 on WMC (ESPNHD), it shows the 3rd tuner as doing such, with -1.9db signal and PLAYING.


The other thing I noticed, is in the last few installs I haven't ever seen the CETON section come up on WMC, and I remember that happening. Something I'm missing?

[tjoynt]

Still getting nothing.

Support is giving me the "install these 2 hotfixes and set Power Options" that they've done twice before. I obviously said I installed ALL windows updates.
Is support just a copy/paste robot or what?

[barnabas1969]

Perhaps you should verify that the two hotfixes in question have indeed been installed. They may not have been included in the normal Windows Updates. Open the Control Panel, go to "Programs and Features", then click the link on the left that says "View installed updates". Then, click in the text box in the upper-right corner where it says "Search Installed Updates" and type the hotfix number they referred to (one at a time). If no results are found, then you need to install the hotfix.

If the two hotfixes are already installed, then you need to respond to Ceton and tell them exactly what you did to verify that they were installed already.

[tjoynt]

They are installed. I even re-downloaded them and tried to run. Said "already installed". I posted this to the support.

[JohnW248]

They are installed. I even re-downloaded them and tried to run. Said "already installed". I posted this to the support.

Maybe I missed it, but after you re-install windows you have to run the digital cable advisor from media center before you will see the cableCARD tuner. The Ceton ap that was in Media Center was removed in the last driver update.

If you don't run and pass the DCA (and make sure you aren't full screen on MC when you run it or you'll miss the UAC when it asks to make system changes) you won't be able to tune cableCARD channels. Also when you are installing the cableCARD tuner and running tv set-up for the first time, it will make another download from MS during the install process and install playready. If you don't have that, it won't work. I'm running Win7Pro on two machines without problems and multiple tuners on each so that version will work---as long as it has been activated before you start the whole media center process. If not activated, then it won't work.

[tjoynt]

Yes, I ran DCA each time.

Thanks for the Ceton App in WMC info, good to know.

I've taken my fileserver out of hiding and am throwing in a 120GB SSD I have laying around and gonna install Win7 on it and see if I can get the card working with it's hardware.

[JohnW248]

Are the student downloads from MS the same as the retail version? I remember in the beta tests there were versions of Win7 that didn't work with cableCARD. It seems like something is missing or removed from the OS.

[erkotz]

The N versions do not include the DRM necessary for protected content. MSDN downloads are the same as retail releases, but in most cases, the MSDN license agreement does not allow you to legally use software downloaded from MSDN for "production" uses.

[tjoynt]

And this is considered "production" use?
License allowing you to or not is one thing, software blocking it is another.

Where should I get a disk image from then?
I have a friend who has (legal) access to pretty much any versions key.

I realized my fileserver probably won't pass the DCA cause of the graphics in it, so that may be a no go as well

[erkotz]

And this is considered "production" use?
License allowing you to or not is one thing, software blocking it is another.

Where should I get a disk image from then?
I have a friend who has (legal) access to pretty much any versions key.

I realized my fileserver probably won't pass the DCA cause of the graphics in it, so that may be a no go as well

It is my understanding that using a MSDN copy of Windows at home for day to day use would be considered in violation of it's license agreement - it is designed for testing (for instance, using a MSDN copy of Windows 7 in your test lab to test a piece of software you are developing would be legitimate, but using it to run Visual Studio to develop the software would not).

Regarding where you can get the media, your copy of Windows should include that. If you purchased a boxed copy, there should have been a CD inside. If you purchased a key from microsoft.com, I believe it emailed you a download link. I do believe that the ISOs on MSDN are identical to these downloads.

That said, I am not a lawyer/expert in Microsoft licensing and you should contact either a lawyer or Microsoft's licensing department for clarification on the nuances of their licensing agreement.

[Motz]

I think for N versions of Windows 7 you need this: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... x?id=16546 Although I am not sure if that has all the DRM stuff.

[cbanakis]

This is a super old thread, but hopefully somone is still reading.

I am having the exact same issue with windows 7 media center, and my infinitv6.

Only mine "was" working.

Hard drive broke, redid everything, and now despite the ceton diagnostic tool being able to successfully tune all channels, wmc still says service is unavailable, on every channel.

Did anyone crack this case?

[Tester]

Same question as cbanakis.

Main Win7 system running Infinity4 local Tuner 1, 2 and 3. No issues.

Secondary win7 system running Infinity5 Networked Tuner 4. Used to work fine, all of the sudden the dreaded Service Unavailable.
Formatted, hotfixes, blah blah blah, still same issue. Will work for a day and then back to Service Unavailable.

[werds]

Same question as cbanakis.

Main Win7 system running Infinity4 local Tuner 1, 2 and 3. No issues.

Secondary win7 system running Infinity5 Networked Tuner 4. Used to work fine, all of the sudden the dreaded Service Unavailable.
Formatted, hotfixes, blah blah blah, still same issue. Will work for a day and then back to Service Unavailable.

Same issue I have/had Wife forced us into DirecTV contract since we couldn't get it resolved (and she refused to even touch the crappy cableco dvr). Although I am now stuck in a 2 year contract I am looking at these posts in hopes that someone figures out what is wrong so I can apply a fix (otherwise it means the issue was the cable provider the whole time and I am stuck with DirecTV for life!) P.S. the wife still complains about how she liked WMC better than the DirecTV genie system...

[Dmordarski]

did you run the video/audio setup? are you using HDMI for audio/video I've had this problem, swapped to HDMI/toslink and it was okay.