[bsbd]

You seem to be missing the critical importance of a properly functioning HSC. It's not just a box that replaces the old tuning adapter to allow you to tune in channels you say you never watch, it provides a far more important new function, acting as the communications bridge between the headend and the cablecard. Previously the cablecard and headend communicated directly, but those days are long gone and the HSC must be provisioned correctly for your cablecard to work.

Before focusing on the cablecard, at a minimum you should go into the Tuning Adapter Diagnostics screen and verify:

1) The "Cable Modem" screen says it's authorized and operational
2) The "CableCard Discovery" screen shows the cc's serial number info in the UA fields
3) The "SDV" screen shows Authorized = Yes
4) The "TR" screen shows Authorized = Yes

You need to be sure those conditions are met before worrying about the cablecard.

 

[MediaTechGuy]

You seem to be missing the critical importance of a properly functioning HSC. It's not just a box that replaces the old tuning adapter to allow you to tune in channels you say you never watch, it provides a far more important new function, acting as the communications bridge between the headend and the cablecard. Previously the cablecard and headend communicated directly, but those days are long gone and the HSC must be provisioned correctly for your cablecard to work.

Before focusing on the cablecard, at a minimum you should go into the Tuning Adapter Diagnostics screen and verify:

1) The "Cable Modem" screen says it's authorized and operational
2) The "CableCard Discovery" screen shows the cc's serial number info in the UA fields
3) The "SDV" screen shows Authorized = Yes
4) The "TR" screen shows Authorized = Yes

You need to be sure those conditions are met before worrying about the cablecard.

Wow this is great information and exactly what I’m looking for. Yes I did not understand this information, and you’re right. Very grateful for your time and this response. Thank you my friend.

 

[MediaTechGuy]

You seem to be missing the critical importance of a properly functioning HSC. It's not just a box that replaces the old tuning adapter to allow you to tune in channels you say you never watch, it provides a far more important new function, acting as the communications bridge between the headend and the cablecard. Previously the cablecard and headend communicated directly, but those days are long gone and the HSC must be provisioned correctly for your cablecard to work.

Before focusing on the cablecard, at a minimum you should go into the Tuning Adapter Diagnostics screen and verify:

1) The "Cable Modem" screen says it's authorized and operational
2) The "CableCard Discovery" screen shows the cc's serial number info in the UA fields
3) The "SDV" screen shows Authorized = Yes
4) The "TR" screen shows Authorized = Yes

You need to be sure those conditions are met before worrying about the cablecard.

okay just checked. The cable card discovery screen does not show any of my cable card info. Matter of fact, every line says “unknown”

EDIT: haha things just get weirder and weirder. I decided to unplug ONLY the power cable to the Vecima this time, left the usb plugged in, plugged the power cable back in, and VOILA all my channels came in. Thanks for all the help guys!!! I don’t entirely know what fixed it to be honest, but I can’t lie, I’m happy. Lol I must have rebooted both pieces of equipment 100 times each and every way possible, so not sure what made it take this time around, but I’ll happily take it I suppose. Thanks again!

 

[bsbd]

okay just checked. The cable card discovery screen does not show any of my cable card info. Matter of fact, every line says “unknown”

EDIT: haha things just get weirder and weirder. I decided to unplug ONLY the power cable to the Vecima this time, left the usb plugged in, plugged the power cable back in, and VOILA all my channels came in. Thanks for all the help guys!!! I don’t entirely know what fixed it to be honest, but I can’t lie, I’m happy. Lol I must have rebooted both pieces of equipment 100 times each and every way possible, so not sure what made it take this time around, but I’ll happily take it I suppose. Thanks again!

If the HSC wasn't recognizing the cablecard it certainly explains why things weren't working. The fact that the TiVo cablecard options screens displayed Con = Yes Val = V but were otherwise truncated suggests an interrupted boot-up at some point. Glad you got it working.

 

[MediaTechGuy]

If the HSC wasn't recognizing the cablecard it certainly explains why things weren't working. The fact that the TiVo cablecard options screens displayed Con = Yes Val = V but were otherwise truncated suggests an interrupted boot-up at some point. Glad you got it working.

Yah makes sense, and thx again for all your help. I especially mean you and the couple others who offered their advice. Just out of curiosity, do you mean the boot-up sequence or process was interrupted for the cable card, the HSC, or both?

 

[bsbd]

Just out of curiosity, do you mean the boot-up sequence or process was interrupted for the cable card, the HSC, or both?

Hard to say for sure, I'm just guessing anyway. Seems logical to me that the cablecard having only partial settings may have been caused by something interrupting the TiVo and cablecard as they were booting, either from the TiVo losing power or from the loss of the coax signal from the HSC.

You said things came back when you recycled the HSC power, but it seems to me that at some point prior to you doing that the TiVo must have rebooted to allow the cablecard fully load. Your subsequent power-cycling of the HSC caused it to reach out and rediscover the cablecard now fully loaded with settings.

 

[shulercox]

I don't know any sure fire way to tell if the legacy OOB is present short of switching to parallel coax mode with the splitter and see if you lose all your channels (perhaps after a Tivo reboot, maybe even without). I'll admit I'm also curious whether Cox has turned off its legacy OOB, but not curious enough to go asking for trouble when things are working well as they are now wired serially.

It sounds to me like prior to what you called Step 1 your HSC was obviously passing through the legacy OOB since you were wired serially and almost certainly wouldn't have been getting ADSG yet due to the 2-way addressability issue. I wish the signal flow shown in the high-split converter block diagram in KP's article was a little more clear about what happens if the HSC sees both legacy OOB and ADSG data incoming. I would think they would filter out the legacy OOB and give ADSG priority, but there's no way to tell for sure from the drawing.

I've been involved in a bit of a discussion with a guy on dslreports about my theory that Spectrum's Phase 1 high split is actually mid split. He contends that the specification has a typo and our modems actually are switchable to 204 MHz. The Charter CEO claims Phase 1 is a 204 split, but everything I see in writing says 85 mHz (actually switchable 42 to 85) I will attach a copy of a very interesting document that you may already have. Check in the range of slides 65, 68, 70.

Another guy on dslreports, Motorola870, says that we will get our symmetrical when they activate our OFDMA channels. I guess that might show up on our Tivo\Vecima\cable modem screen.

Also, the attached document shows generic upgrade sequences that relocate OOB to 108 MHz or elsewhere in the 102-130 range. I have always been unsure about whether they will relocate the OOB or kill it altogether.

 

[Luke M]

I've been involved in a bit of a discussion with a guy on dslreports about my theory that Spectrum's Phase 1 high split is actually mid split. He contends that the specification has a typo and our modems actually are switchable to 204 MHz. The Charter CEO claims Phase 1 is a 204 split, but everything I see in writing says 85 mHz (actually switchable 42 to 85) I will attach a copy of a very interesting document that you may already have. Check in the range of slides 65, 68, 70.

Another guy on dslreports, Motorola870, says that we will get our symmetrical when they activate our OFDMA channels. I guess that might show up on our Tivo\Vecima\cable modem screen.

Also, the attached document shows generic upgrade sequences that relocate OOB to 108 MHz or elsewhere in the 102-130 range. I have always been unsure about whether they will relocate the OOB or kill it altogether.

I've never read of Charter deploying midsplit anywhere. That's a Comcast thing.

 

[shulercox]

I've never read of Charter deploying midsplit anywhere. That's a Comcast thing.

Thanks. I came to an incorrect conclusion because of an assumption. I think I am within a couple of months of getting symmetrical. I have an EU2251 modem, which I believe is indeed a mid-split modem because 85 MHz minimum is required by DOCSIS 3.1. I had assumed Spectrum would not be replacing their first gen DOCSIS 3.1 modems, but I now expect I will be getting a new modem. There is a Hitron EN2251-HSP that can handle high split. I was talking to a guy on Cox and he also mentioned mid-split.

 

[bsbd]

I've been involved in a bit of a discussion with a guy on dslreports about my theory that Spectrum's Phase 1 high split is actually mid split. He contends that the specification has a typo and our modems actually are switchable to 204 MHz. The Charter CEO claims Phase 1 is a 204 split, but everything I see in writing says 85 mHz (actually switchable 42 to 85) I will attach a copy of a very interesting document that you may already have. Check in the range of slides 65, 68, 70.

Another guy on dslreports, Motorola870, says that we will get our symmetrical when they activate our OFDMA channels. I guess that might show up on our Tivo\Vecima\cable modem screen.

Also, the attached document shows generic upgrade sequences that relocate OOB to 108 MHz or elsewhere in the 102-130 range. I have always been unsure about whether they will relocate the OOB or kill it altogether.

Cox is likely already mid-split here (who knows) but they're famously stingy about upload speeds. Though I'm capped at 50 Mbps upstream, my Arris S33 does show I'm already getting one OFDMA upstream channel in addition to four SC-QAM upstream channels. Downstream I'm getting two OFDM channels in addition to the thirty-two QAM256 streams.

Keith Perry's article was definitely from the Cox perspective and telling only their side of the the story, but he said Cox was looking to retire the SCTE 55 OOB equipment and only send ADSG. It would then be up to the Vecima HSC to create a fake OOB in the home for the TiVo. Charter/Spectrum might have other plans that could possibly include just moving the OOB, although I would imagine that would entail keeping some old headend equipment going that they might rather retire.

Thanks for posting the doc, I hadn't see that yet.

 

[bsbd]

If the HSC wasn't recognizing the cablecard it certainly explains why things weren't working. The fact that the TiVo cablecard options screens displayed Con = Yes Val = V but were otherwise truncated suggests an interrupted boot-up at some point. Glad you got it working.

A post-script footnote... I just experienced this exact same scenario yesterday after some nasty Cox signal issues that ultimately caused my cable modem and Vecima HSC to reboot. I looked and saw that my cablecard diagnostics Conditional Access screen was truncated with only the first four lines showing (down to the Con = Yes Val = V line with blank screen under that). Before doing anything I checked the Vecima HSC dianostic screens, and lo and behold the cablecard discovery screen indicated the HSC didn't see a cablecard. I power-cycled the HSC (only) and voila, the cablecard was detected and the TiVo cablecard CA screen was fully populated as it should have been.

 

[bsbd]

I don't know any sure fire way to tell if the legacy OOB is present short of switching to parallel coax mode with the splitter and see if you lose all your channels (perhaps after a Tivo reboot, maybe even without). I'll admit I'm also curious whether Cox has turned off its legacy OOB, but not curious enough to go asking for trouble when things are working well as they are now wired serially.

Today I saw a Cox truck outside for a neighbor's issue. When the tech got out of the truck I recognized him as the same level 2 guy I had worked with before. I went out for a quick chat and in the course of the conversation he confirmed that Cox (Hampton Roads) shut down the legacy OOB signaling last November. That's one mystery solved, no need to experiment to find out.