[ericvh]

So, I've had my TivoHD for a week before Time Warner scheduled the install of the cable cards. Everything was working great. OTA HD was working and Tivo was able to access Analog cable channels.

They sowed up yesterday to install two cable cards -- apparently both are Multi's. I told the Installer I thought I only needed one, but he said we'd just install both and get it working and then see if it only worked with one.

He plugs them both in, calls the central office and gets the cards registered and associted. On the diagnostic screens everything looks okay and he checks to see I'm getting video on the tivo and that looks okay, and then Tivo kicks into its guided setup. So I sign the sheet and he leaves.

After guided setup completes, I realize we were only looking at an Analog channel. As soon as I try looking at any of the Premium Channels (HBO, Showtime) or any of the HD channels (Discovery HD, HBO HD, etc.) the screen is black. I go through the Cable Card menus myself. The cards are associated, and they detect the digital signal, encoding, bitrate, etc. But still black screen and no sound. Channels which I don't subscribe to have a banner saying so, but premium channels I used to get are just black.

I call Time Warner and they send a signal to "kick" the cable cards and say they will redispatch the installer.

I've googled around and I haven't seen this particular issue. Anyone seen this and/or no what the fix is?

-eric

 

[Got_it_done]

Can you verify if the cable card diagnostics indicate you recieved cp authorization and how many emm's?

 

[ericvh]

Can you verify if the cable card diagnostics indicate you recieved cp authorization and how many emm's?

CP Auth received
LTSID:0x0 PN:0x3d CCI:0x0
LTSID:0x0 PN:0x0 CCI:0x0
LTSID:0x0 PN:0x0 CCI:0x0
LTSID:0x0 PN:0x0 CCI:0x0
LTSID:0x0 PN:0x0 CCI:0x0
LTSID:0x0 PN:0x0 CCI:0x0
Verify Key Status: OK

I looked through the various menus - didn't see EMM'S -- where do I find them?

-eric

 

[ericvh]

Just got off the phone with the TiVo CableCard tech support folks. They said its a known issue with the current version of the firmware on the TivoHD and they are working on a patch for it, but have no time frame when said patch will be released.

This last bit really pisses me off as I am spending $20/$30 a month for premium channels I can not even access, if this new patch isn't a quick fix, I really want to suspend that service. And if this problem isn't resolvable in a reasonable period of time then I really want to ship the piece of crap back to them before my 30-day guarantee expires.

So, just to provide as much information as possible - this was with Scientific Atlanta Multistream cards 1.2 which are the only type of cards Time Warner is providing in Austin, TX.

Time Warner was really nice and had already rolled a truck back to my house to try and resolve the issue.

 

[Got_it_done]

when you find out some more information about this "patch", please let me know... I'd be curious to find out what they're saying on your end. I'm not in front of my tivo right now, but if I remember to look when I get home I'll let you know where the emm's can be found. New patch eh? why I oughta

 

[cableguy763]

Got him fixed. His tivo just needed the proper hits sent to his M card. The "patch" answer was probably used to just get him off of the phone.

 

[ericvh]

Many thanks cableguy763!!!!

 

[richardhendricks]

CableGuy763,
I'm in a similar situation, with a multistream cable card that can decode the 1500's but none of the 1600's. Any suggestions I can give the installer to do when he comes back on Tuesday? I read somewhere that the headend needs to send the EMM messages, and that the generic online support techs don't know how to do that.

PArt of the Card status windows:

CA Screen
-----
Status: Not Staged
CA Time-
Waiting For Update...
Time GBAM: 0
EMMs Processed: 0

Host ID screen
-----
Type: One-Way Authoization Received

SA CableCARD CP Info
Auth Status: CP Auth Received
VerifyKey Status: OK

So based on my knowledge (I didn't sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last knight, but I did google...), it looks like the card is receiving everything fine except the EMMs.

Any suggestions on who the tech needs to call or what he needs to say to the support ppl to get it working? Could I call tech support myself to get it done?

 

[evelez1]

My TIVO HD is working now and this is what the issue was with those channels above 1500. The installer has to call the Austin "DNSC" (i.e. network head-end operations) and ask them to transmit at least 32 EMMs. The default sent is like 4 EMMS and that is not enough for the Cablecard to start working.

 

[richardhendricks]

Evelez1,
Thanks for the hint, that seemed to do it, once the DNSC decided to answer their phone they could send EMMs down. I need to check once I get home, but it looks like the GBAMs were increasing. The EMM number seemed like it didn't increase beyond the 39 they initially sent. I can now receive Discovery HD theater (yay!). of course, the Switched Digital Video channels aren't there, which is a bummer for AETV.

Followup:

Looks like the GBAMS and the EMMs are still increasing over time. Discovery Theatre looks great.