Music Channel Problems

[Viventis]

My setup is Charter, Internal Ceton card, and a Motorola tuning adapter. I also have a one port amplifier with active return (but I tested with it bypassed). All of my TV channels work fine. Very little, if any pixelization. I get good signals and my SNR is always over 35. Unfortunately, the music channels offered by Charter go in and out, such that my audio receiver can't resolve them. Even on my PC, the music channels all have the hiccups. I can listen to them when I use a Charter receiver. Any help appreciated.

[barnabas1969]

What's the signal strength and SNR when you are tuned to one of the problem music channels?

[Viventis]

Signal strength between 4 and 7 dBmV and SNR from 34.8 to 37.1. Oddly, the music channels all have positive values on signal strength, whereas all the TV channels are negative. However, all are with +/- 15 dBmV.

[erkotz]

Music choice channels are a bit interesting - while they are legit video streams, they are very different than pretty much other channel for a number of reasons, and occasionally can cause odd problems to pop up (however, we are not aware of any issues with them in our current beta firmware). I would make sure you have our newest beta firmware and drivers installed. If the issue persists, I would recommend you open a support ticket so we can look into it.

[mdavej]

I've had exactly the same problem for months on Charter. My workaround is to pause for about 10 seconds. Then when I resume playback, I get no more dropouts.

I don't know if I have the latest firmware and software because the Ceton diagnostics say there are no updates, yet I know there must be because of reports of the deprecated add-in which I still have.

I'm reluctant to open a ticket myself since my system is working great otherwise, and I don't want to break it.

Please post back when you find a solution.

[Viventis]

I updated to the Beta driver and firmware with no change. On the other hand, I am almost positive that it is merely a buffering problem. If I pause the player for thirty seconds every time I switch to a new music channel, I am good to go! My internet connection is pretty fast. I usually Speedtest.net at >30 Mbps. My router, a Netgear 4500, is top of the line and my modem is the latest Motorola Surfboard, with Docsis 3.0.

[mdavej]

I updated to the Beta driver and firmware with no change. On the other hand, I am almost positive that it is merely a buffering problem. If I pause the player for thirty seconds every time I switch to a new music channel, I am good to go! My internet connection is pretty fast. I usually Speedtest.net at >30 Mbps. My router, a Netgear 4500, is top of the line and my modem is the latest Motorola Surfboard, with Docsis 3.0.

That's my workaround too and my experience with the lates firmware. But realize that your internet speed, router and modem don't come into play at all.

It would be nice for Ceton to fix this.

[erkotz]

We need someone who is experiencing this issue to open a support ticket for us to investigate.

[Viventis]

I just set up a support ticket.

[mdavej]

Viventis, give the latest firmware (released yesterday) a try. It fixed the issue for me.

[Viventis]

Viventis, give the latest firmware (released yesterday) a try. It fixed the issue for me.

Thanks. I updated but I still have the problem. I have not experimented very much yet, but subjectively, it appears that I have to hit pause for a shorter period of time. I remember you only had to pause for 10 seconds or so earlier, whereas I had to pause longer. Baby steps in the right direction? The folks at Ceton asked me to send a test with all four tuners on the same music channel. They said that my test revealed a problem with my Tuning Adapter. I was curious because the music channels don't need the TA to resolve, and all indications are that my TA is locked and working. I replaced it as a precaution. No change.

[barnabas1969]

I'm sorry it took me so long to do something in response to this thread. I don't have an InfiniTV tuner. I have two SiliconDust HD HomeRun PRIME 3-tuner devices. I don't know if I ever listened to the music channels for any length of time when I had an InfiniTV tuner, but I definitely don't remember any noticeable interruptions in the audio or video on those channels.

Tonight, using my HDHR Prime tuner, I tuned one of my Music Choice channels for an hour while reading stuff online. I counted 6 momentary interruptions in the audio in the hour. When I say "momentary", I'm talking about interruptions that are as fast as you can snap your fingers.

I don't know if this happens on a cable box from the cable company because I don't have one.

[erkotz]

I'm sorry it took me so long to do something in response to this thread. I don't have an InfiniTV tuner. I have two SiliconDust HD HomeRun PRIME 3-tuner devices. I don't know if I ever listened to the music channels for any length of time when I had an InfiniTV tuner, but I definitely don't remember any noticeable interruptions in the audio or video on those channels.

Tonight, using my HDHR Prime tuner, I tuned one of my Music Choice channels for an hour while reading stuff online. I counted 6 momentary interruptions in the audio in the hour. When I say "momentary", I'm talking about interruptions that are as fast as you can snap your fingers.

I don't know if this happens on a cable box from the cable company because I don't have one.

I'm not aware of any issues with the InfiniTV on Music Choice (in fact, I've had it going a few hours a day on MC every afternoon for the last few weeks while I work). MC channels are "interesting" in that they are very low bitrate, and there are a lot of channels (40+) on the same QAM, so they are a bit of an edge case.

[mdavej]

I've had a Prime in the past which didn't have any interruptions. And even when I first got my Ceton, it didn't have the problem either. But when it first started happening, it wouldn't go more than 10 seconds without a quick dropout. To rule out Charter, I tried my Motorola DVR at the time, and it didn't have any dropouts. The weirdest part is that pausing a few seconds then chasing from the buffer eliminated the dropouts entirely. As I said, whatever they did in the last firmware update fixed my issue. So whatever they did, increasing a buffer or timer or whatever, they probably need to do more of the same to fix Viventis' issue.

[barnabas1969]

Well, I guess I'm saying that I experience momentary dropouts on a different brand tuner. I probably haven't listened to the Music Choice channels for more than a year. And, when I listened to them with my InfiniTV tuner, I probably didn't listen very long. I might have briefly tuned each channel just to verify that they worked, but I don't use Music Choice because my AVR has access to Pandora, Sirius, Napster, and tens of thousands of Internet radio stations.

I have no reason to use Music Choice, which requires my PC and AVR to be turned on, and doesn't give me the multi-room options that the built-in features of my AVR give me.

[Viventis]

Tonight, using my HDHR Prime tuner, I tuned one of my Music Choice channels for an hour while reading stuff online. I counted 6 momentary interruptions in the audio in the hour. When I say "momentary", I'm talking about interruptions that are as fast as you can snap your fingers.

For me, it is impossible to listen to the music channels because the hiccups are so frequent that my AVR can't lock onto a music program to play them. After hitting pause for 30 seconds or so, I can listen to a channel indefinitely without a hiccup. If I change stations, I must pause again.

I am curious as to whether Charter has an issue. Even though my Ceton does fine with regular television, I sometimes get hiccups when watching an "On Demand" movie with the Charter DVR box. Not as frequent, but annoying. Pausing the movie does not help that situation.

[TheOsburnFamil]

Okay-- this thread caught my eye finally. I'm a Charter customer myself in SW-Michigan. I've got two Ceton PCIes with Mot TAs. Exactly like the OP, my signals are all good and I never have any issues with my channels on my two Cetons-- it's been the greatest thing since sliced bread.

That being said, my music channels through my Cetons have never worked right. As I only ever even tried to use them during the Christmas time, I never bothered to troubleshoot--it was always easier to just say screw it and flip over to the Charter STB. I looked at it like, "hey-- my Charter STB is like that old POS car that sits in your driveway... Can't get rid of it but you don't want it to totally die-- so you drive it around the block once a year..."

I thought it was just me-- but now seeing this, looks like it's probably more of a Charter-meets-Ceton issue.

I don't mind opening an SR with Ceton if nobody else has. My cards are already on the beta list anyway and running:
Driver Package 12.12.26.1250
Driver 1.0.2.4
Firmware 1.2.2.6
Hardware 6408

[TheOsburnFamil]

...and yes, I know there's a MUCH MUCH newer version of everything. It's just ran so darn good all TV season long that I haven't had any desire to change anything. Plus, tonight's the finale of The Office-- I'll be damned if I jack up the MediaCenter tonight! LOL

[RyC]

I'm also on Charter with an infinitv 4 so I checked and I was able to listen to a MC channel for about an hour without any dropouts. Signal level was -6.6 and SNR was 33.8. I'm on a Cisco system with a TA.

[Viventis]

I'm also on Charter with an infinitv 4 so I checked and I was able to listen to a MC channel for about an hour without any dropouts. Signal level was -6.6 and SNR was 33.8. I'm on a Cisco system with a TA.

It isn't a signal level issue with me. Just tested a station and my numbers were 5.2 and 36.6 with immediate dropouts. The whole "buffering" thing is just so curious. Cable isn't like internet where a signal sometimes does not come fast enough to keep up. Or is it? When I pause a music station, I can see the buffer line move past the pause mark (but only by a little bit). When I restart the music after the pause, The station plays flawlessly and never catches up to the buffer line.