Interesting find on S3 CableCard diagnostics

[moyekj]

I was always confused why sometimes when I would check my S3 CableCard Conditional Access (CA) screen (Motorola CCs) that it would be in "bad" state:
Auth: MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY
CA Enable: unknown

What I have found is if you have your tuners tuned to channels that do not require authentication (e.g. unencrypted cable channels or OTA channels) that after an undetermined amount of time the above is what happens in the CA screen. I assume it's because in that state the CCs are not receiving any authentication messages from the headend and therefore authorization capability becomes unknown.

Once I tune back to channels that do require authentication then I see the screen CA screen reverts back to the "normal" state:
Auth: SUBSCRIBED
CA Enable: possible

Perhaps this is known information already, but it certainly was news to me which is why I thought I'd share it here.

[vman41]

I assume it's because in that state the CCs are not receiving any authentication messages from the headend and therefore authorization capability becomes unknown.

Once I tune back to channels that do require authentication then I see the screen CA screen reverts back to the "normal" state:
Auth: SUBSCRIBED
CA Enable: possible


As best as I can understand cable card operation, the authentication messages are on a separate data path and the CC should have to tune and encrypted channel to get the messages.

[moyekj]

I think one lesson from this is just because your cable card CA screen says it's not subscribed or Conditional Access is unknown does not mean there is anything wrong with the cable card. You should tune to a known encrypted channel for that tuner/cable card combination before reading the diagnostic pages for it. And remember that:
Tuner 0 goes with CC#2
Tuner 1 goes with CC#1