Hey Guys,

Looking to tap your knowledge again on why my maiden CableCard voyage never left port...  I had a tech come out today from Charter Communications..  Real nice guy...  He brought out two "MCards"...

First off...  A question: Do the ATI OCUR Tuners support MCards, because if they don't... that could be my problem right there.

We re-ran all my cable runs, and he put a bunch of splitters (I have a cable modem, HDHR running both tuners on cable, and two internal OCUR tuners) in as well as an amp...  He tested my signal levels, and he said they were good on the coax ends that went to my  internal OCUR tuners.

I of course can't get Vista to see the CableCARDs, it is on the screen where it asks if you're "Digital Ready", and wants to "Scan for a CableCARD".. 

Doing some research, I found the FAQ on http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediacenter/cablecard.mspx so I followed the steps, and went to the tuner's internal web pages.  I went to advindex.html, and did the first check it called for on the FAQ, which is to check the OOB Tuner "Carrier Lock" flag, which should be 1.  Mine is 0.  I do have values on both tuners for the IB portion...  SNR of 28db and Signal Level of 40 dBmV.. identical values on both...  When I go to the digial tuner diagnostics portion in VMC, it says the card status is removed and manufacturer is unavailable....  which is why I posed the question above about Mcards at the beginning of my post... its almost like the tuners aren't even seeing the cards.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Patrick-

This is the trace I'm getting from one of the tuners:

[18:03246.7] rftuner.c => TunerSetTunerParameters: frequency 55250, modulation NTSC-M (parsing result 0x0)
[19:03980.7] tunemngr.c => Cgms changed: APS: 0, CGMS: 3, RC: 0, CGMS source: 1
[20:03980.7] DkDrmTx.c => wmdrm_UpdateCopyProtectionInfo(0, 0, 3, 2)
[21:03981.3] tunemngr.c => Cgms changed: APS: 0, CGMS: 0, RC: 0, CGMS source: 1
[22:03981.3] DkDrmTx.c => wmdrm_UpdateCopyProtectionInfo(0, 0, 0, 2)
[23:04666.7] tunemngr.c => Cgms changed: APS: 0, CGMS: 1, RC: 0, CGMS source: 1
[24:04666.7] DkDrmTx.c => wmdrm_UpdateCopyProtectionInfo(0, 0, 1, 2)
[25:04670.1] tunemngr.c => Cgms changed: APS: 0, CGMS: 0, RC: 0, CGMS source: 1
[26:04670.1] DkDrmTx.c => wmdrm_UpdateCopyProtectionInfo(0, 0, 0, 2)
[27:04670.2] tunemngr.c => Cgms changed: APS: 0, CGMS: 2, RC: 0, CGMS source: 1
[28:04670.2] DkDrmTx.c => wmdrm_UpdateCopyProtectionInfo(0, 0, 2, 2)
[29:04670.4] tunemngr.c => Cgms changed: APS: 0, CGMS: 0, RC: 0, CGMS source: 1
[30:04670.4] DkDrmTx.c => wmdrm_UpdateCopyProtectionInfo(0, 0, 0, 2)

MCards are supported and do work, but I'd recommend SCards.  There were some bugs in earlier ATI firmware releases, but I believe they are resolved at this point.  I originally had MCards, had the bugs (but for the most part all was fine); rather than deal with my wife screaming; I had them come back with SCards.

I can't offer too much in troubleshooting as my install went smoothly.  Do the tuner's internal pages see the cards?  Manufacturer, etc.?    I'd call Charter tonight and make sure they have ALL of the numbers paired right; including the CableCARD itself; the Host, the Data, and Unit Address.   It is common for pairing to be off b/c of incorrect numbers inputted on the provider's side.   Then ask to them to send a "hit" to the card(s).

Good Luck.

 

 

on the second tuner:

[33:04946.5] tunemngr.c => Cgms changed: APS: 0, CGMS: 0, RC: 0, CGMS source: 1
[34:04946.5] DkDrmTx.c => wmdrm_UpdateCopyProtectionInfo(0, 0, 0, 2)

boxerboys:

MCards are supported and do work, but I'd recommend SCards.  There were some bugs in earlier ATI firmware releases, but I believe they are resolved at this point.  I originally had MCards, had the bugs (but for the most part all was fine); rather than deal with my wife screaming; I had them come back with SCards.

I can't offer too much in troubleshooting as my install went smoothly.  Do the tuner's internal pages see the cards?  Manufacturer, etc.?    I'd call Charter tonight and make sure they have ALL of the numbers paired right; including the CableCARD itself; the Host, the Data, and Unit Address.   It is common for pairing to be off b/c of incorrect numbers inputted on the provider's side.   Then ask to them to send a "hit" to the card(s).

Good Luck.

 

 

Thank you BoxerBoy!  No, the tuner's internal pages don't see the cards....   It says the cards are "removed"

I called and checked the serial numbers they had on their end for the cards, and we matched.  So its not that..  I asked him to send out another hit, and he did... which didn't change much...  still seeing 0 on the OOB Carrier Flag.

Hmmm; OK.  So the tuner's don't even recognize the cards at all; so pairing is not even an option at this point.

1. Do you have green or red lights on the tuner? (that is if they are external; not sure if the internals have any indicator lights).
2. Try reseating the cards one at at time; making sure they go all the way in
3. Update to ATI's latest firmware (if you have not already)

Not sure what else to tell you other than they may be bad cards.

1.  Green..  Each tuner has two lights...  One is Green, the other is not lit.

2.  Will do.

3.  I did this earlier today.

The cable cards don't go as far in as you'd think they would, but I'm 99.9% sure I can't get them any further in without possibly breaking it :/

 

Try this from outside VMC. Open Network on the desk top. There should be your two tunner in there along with your other network computers, nas, etc. Double click on one and it should open in an explorer window. If there is a recognized card inside then you should see a list of applications under the card tab. If that's there, click on the host and you need to tell the cable company that host number and cable card number. The ones that showed up initial inside Media Center were wrong and the cable head end kept getting not valid.

If nothing shows up there, take out the card and make sure without cards in you can see the tuner and you can tune the regular cable ntsc channels (2-99) or whatever is on your block. While the cable card is out, there is serial number on the SA M-800 cards these are all letters. The cable company has to enter these into the system to send the first NIT before you can get the host number and cable card number to get the authorization.

I have two M cards working in Time Warner in Los Angeles Valley district and was the first they had installed. The numbers were got from Media Center just screwed up their computer. The cable company has to set up your cards with a M Host and not a S Host.

If the second green light doesn't turn on with the tuner then the cable card hasn't gotten an IP address (yea there's a cable modem inside). Once you get the host and cable card ID screen, and an authorization (first there will be a phone number to call for activation) then go to the CA screen and check the MM count. I have no idea what the letters stand for but once you start getting a count above zero, then your cards as working. Now you can go back into Media Center and run the set up if this is all working you'll fly through the digitial set up and when you go to diag. you'll see the button on top you did before and a whole bunch of new bars which are the same as the web brower pages we accessed in the network window.

John

Don't know if this helps, but I have two MCards on my system and they work fine.  I had read somewhere that you can't have CableCard and non-cablecard tuners on the same machine.  It looked like you were rockin' both the DCT's and HDHomerun.  I don't think the DRM will allow that.  I would try to uninstall the pseudo HDHR tuners and then run the DCT install.  I don't think you can have both.

JohnW248:

Try this from outside VMC. Open Network on the desk top. There should be your two tunner in there along with your other network computers, nas, etc. Double click on one and it should open in an explorer window. If there is a recognized card inside then you should see a list of applications under the card tab. If that's there, click on the host and you need to tell the cable company that host number and cable card number. The ones that showed up initial inside Media Center were wrong and the cable head end kept getting not valid.

If nothing shows up there, take out the card and make sure without cards in you can see the tuner and you can tune the regular cable ntsc channels (2-99) or whatever is on your block. While the cable card is out, there is serial number on the SA M-800 cards these are all letters. The cable company has to enter these into the system to send the first NIT before you can get the host number and cable card number to get the authorization.

I have two M cards working in Time Warner in Los Angeles Valley district and was the first they had installed. The numbers were got from Media Center just screwed up their computer. The cable company has to set up your cards with a M Host and not a S Host.

If the second green light doesn't turn on with the tuner then the cable card hasn't gotten an IP address (yea there's a cable modem inside). Once you get the host and cable card ID screen, and an authorization (first there will be a phone number to call for activation) then go to the CA screen and check the MM count. I have no idea what the letters stand for but once you start getting a count above zero, then your cards as working. Now you can go back into Media Center and run the set up if this is all working you'll fly through the digitial set up and when you go to diag. you'll see the button on top you did before and a whole bunch of new bars which are the same as the web brower pages we accessed in the network window.

John

John,

Thx for the reply!  No applications under the card tab.  I have however, gotten my guide setup with the HDHR using the 1800 channels and I seem to be able to tune to at least some of the lower OCUR channels..  I'm guessing this is the difference between "in band" and "out of band" perhaps?

curbnoise:

Don't know if this helps, but I have two MCards on my system and they work fine.  I had read somewhere that you can't have CableCard and non-cablecard tuners on the same machine.  It looked like you were rockin' both the DCT's and HDHomerun.  I don't think the DRM will allow that.  I would try to uninstall the pseudo HDHR tuners and then run the DCT install.  I don't think you can have both.

curbnoise,

Good idea... I'll try that later tonight after Austin City Limits records :)

CableCards do work alongside HDHomerun; so this is most likely not the problem here.  In this case here, it appears the cards are not being recognized by the tuners for whatever reason; this needs to happen before they can be paired with VMC and the provider.

Let's start from the beginning... Are you able to use the DCT without the cablecards inserted?.. Once you have verified that the DCT function, power down you machine and input one cablecard and reboot... Upon starting VMC your system should see that you inserted a CC... If you do not get any messages about a CC being inserted, we might just have a bad card...