Mamoth
11-16-2007, 04:19 PM
I will also be posting this on the official Charter CableCARD thread, but also wanted to put it here to help anyone having problems.
I had a tech out one week ago to install the CableCARDs in my Series 3 (not TiVo HD). They really didn't follow the directions all that closely, but, the CableCARDs seemed to come up because I was able to view the "in the clear" or "unencrypted" HD stations (which I wasn't able to get without the CableCARDs) so I thought everything was good to go.
About 1 day later I wanted to get the other Tier of HD (which includes ESPNHD and such so I could watch College Basketball). I went ahead and ordered it. But, it never showed up.
I went ahead and went into Conditional Access (something I should have done in the first place). I had:
Auth: MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY
Not good. After about 5 phone calls to Charter, they were unable to do anything for me and finally sent a tech out.
Before he got there, I wanted to get TiVo's take on the whole thing. I gave them all the information off of this screen:
TiVo Conditional Access Screen for my TiVo (http://wtfe.net/tv/tv2.jpg)
I gave the TiVo tech all that info and he said that everything on the card looks great. However, the MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY was an issue. Which is what I figured. He advised me to tell the tech, "Do not refresh the card, initialize the card like it's a brand new card." He also gave me the phone number for the direct line to the CableCARD support.
The tech arrived today and he was very nice. He said he wasn't sure about the TiVos but he was willing to learn for the next time he has to do one. So that was a good sign (that he was willing to dig into it a bit).
I showed him what the problem was, I told him what the TiVo techs told me, I showed him all the CableCARD screens on the TiVo. I made it clear that this was not an issue with the TiVo (as I didn't want him to leave blaming TiVo for the issues) and he was welcome to talk to TiVo to verify that.
He called in to verify all the information in the system was right. He gave no information to the person on the phone. The person on the phone repeated back all the pairing information to the tech and it was all correct. He asked the person on the phone to send a signal to the cards to get them going.
We got nothing. After waiting about a minute or so... he asked to reboot the TiVo. So we did (unplugged it and waiting 30 seconds and plugged it back in).
CableCARD 1 came up with the same error. The second CableCARD came up with "Auth: unknown" (we waited 10 minutes to see if it would refresh, but it never changed).
He called back to the folks he talks to and to verify things. I asked him before he left what he did here and he explained it as such: He (the person on the phone) refresh all occurances on the account. The occurances need to be in the right order. As he was on the phone, the good ole "161-4 error" popped but for CableCARD 1. About 10 seconds later "161-4 error" came up for CableCARD 2. I thought, "SCORE!" and told him those errors were actually a good sign.
We went to the CableCARD menu and went to Conditional Access again. But both cards said, "Auth: unknown". It was a short victory (or so I thought). The "unknown" status stayed for about 10 min so we figured it wasn't going to refresh on it's own.
He called again to another tech and asked if he had any input. He said that we'll reboot the TiVo and see what happens. So, again, I unplugged the TiVo and let it boot up.
I looked at CableCARD 1 and it was in "unknown" status still. I went to "Test Channels" on that card, moved to the HD tier I paid for that wasn't coming in, and, holy cow, I had a picture. I went to the "Conditional Access" and, it finally said, "SUBSCRIBED".
CableCARD 2 did the same thing. After CableCARD 1 was working, I went to "Conditional Access" and it was in "unknown" status. So I went to "Test Channels" and went to a channel in the HD tier again. And, there was picture! I went back to CableCARD 2's "Conditional Access" and it finally said "SUBSCRIBED"!
SUCCESS!!!!!
The only downfall from all this is that I wanted to verify I would be able to get PPV. But that was a no go. I asked the tech to stick around to see if I could get one. But no one could do it. I called the main Charter number to just order a movie, and they said they could not do it (and, btw, before today, I was told I could get them.. so I'm not sure if something changed on my account).
Seems to me, the biggest hurdle is to get the cable company to get things right on their end. I had all the docs ready for the tech, serial numbers, notes from this web page and TiVo support.
I want to thank Rob (Tech # 4022) in the Midland, MI area for his patience. He was here for about 1.5 hours and never gave the impression he was rushed.
I had a tech out one week ago to install the CableCARDs in my Series 3 (not TiVo HD). They really didn't follow the directions all that closely, but, the CableCARDs seemed to come up because I was able to view the "in the clear" or "unencrypted" HD stations (which I wasn't able to get without the CableCARDs) so I thought everything was good to go.
About 1 day later I wanted to get the other Tier of HD (which includes ESPNHD and such so I could watch College Basketball). I went ahead and ordered it. But, it never showed up.
I went ahead and went into Conditional Access (something I should have done in the first place). I had:
Auth: MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY
Not good. After about 5 phone calls to Charter, they were unable to do anything for me and finally sent a tech out.
Before he got there, I wanted to get TiVo's take on the whole thing. I gave them all the information off of this screen:
TiVo Conditional Access Screen for my TiVo (http://wtfe.net/tv/tv2.jpg)
I gave the TiVo tech all that info and he said that everything on the card looks great. However, the MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY was an issue. Which is what I figured. He advised me to tell the tech, "Do not refresh the card, initialize the card like it's a brand new card." He also gave me the phone number for the direct line to the CableCARD support.
The tech arrived today and he was very nice. He said he wasn't sure about the TiVos but he was willing to learn for the next time he has to do one. So that was a good sign (that he was willing to dig into it a bit).
I showed him what the problem was, I told him what the TiVo techs told me, I showed him all the CableCARD screens on the TiVo. I made it clear that this was not an issue with the TiVo (as I didn't want him to leave blaming TiVo for the issues) and he was welcome to talk to TiVo to verify that.
He called in to verify all the information in the system was right. He gave no information to the person on the phone. The person on the phone repeated back all the pairing information to the tech and it was all correct. He asked the person on the phone to send a signal to the cards to get them going.
We got nothing. After waiting about a minute or so... he asked to reboot the TiVo. So we did (unplugged it and waiting 30 seconds and plugged it back in).
CableCARD 1 came up with the same error. The second CableCARD came up with "Auth: unknown" (we waited 10 minutes to see if it would refresh, but it never changed).
He called back to the folks he talks to and to verify things. I asked him before he left what he did here and he explained it as such: He (the person on the phone) refresh all occurances on the account. The occurances need to be in the right order. As he was on the phone, the good ole "161-4 error" popped but for CableCARD 1. About 10 seconds later "161-4 error" came up for CableCARD 2. I thought, "SCORE!" and told him those errors were actually a good sign.
We went to the CableCARD menu and went to Conditional Access again. But both cards said, "Auth: unknown". It was a short victory (or so I thought). The "unknown" status stayed for about 10 min so we figured it wasn't going to refresh on it's own.
He called again to another tech and asked if he had any input. He said that we'll reboot the TiVo and see what happens. So, again, I unplugged the TiVo and let it boot up.
I looked at CableCARD 1 and it was in "unknown" status still. I went to "Test Channels" on that card, moved to the HD tier I paid for that wasn't coming in, and, holy cow, I had a picture. I went to the "Conditional Access" and, it finally said, "SUBSCRIBED".
CableCARD 2 did the same thing. After CableCARD 1 was working, I went to "Conditional Access" and it was in "unknown" status. So I went to "Test Channels" and went to a channel in the HD tier again. And, there was picture! I went back to CableCARD 2's "Conditional Access" and it finally said "SUBSCRIBED"!
SUCCESS!!!!!
The only downfall from all this is that I wanted to verify I would be able to get PPV. But that was a no go. I asked the tech to stick around to see if I could get one. But no one could do it. I called the main Charter number to just order a movie, and they said they could not do it (and, btw, before today, I was told I could get them.. so I'm not sure if something changed on my account).
Seems to me, the biggest hurdle is to get the cable company to get things right on their end. I had all the docs ready for the tech, serial numbers, notes from this web page and TiVo support.
I want to thank Rob (Tech # 4022) in the Midland, MI area for his patience. He was here for about 1.5 hours and never gave the impression he was rushed.