Ceton Echo & Xbox cannot play H.264 protected content

Troubleshoot and discuss the XBOX 360, XBOX One, Linksys, and other extenders.
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spanner

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#61

Post by spanner » Sat Jan 30, 2016 5:07 pm

whoareyou wrote:
spanner wrote:had the time to check things out yesterday.
3. my two linksys work with my local channels, but I have lost the cable news channels and much more, and also no hbO. I think my linksys are done, so sad they worked so well.
....
In the past we had ceton employees on this board, that had contact with comcast over these types of issues, Maybe some are still looking in.
Linksys definitely are dead as they don't support mpeg-4. Low def are all in mpeg-2 and should still work.
Ceton might be able to help, but the issue also occurs with my HdHomerun cable tuner, so not specific to Ceton.
I agree not specific to ceton, and is specific to comcast. In the past ceton contacted comcast about similar issues, I think it may have been copy protection flags. anyway I am going to open a ticket with ceton and see if i get anywhere, or see if they are still there

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#62

Post by coolwhip » Sat Jan 30, 2016 6:57 pm

spanner wrote:
whoareyou wrote:
spanner wrote:had the time to check things out yesterday.
3. my two linksys work with my local channels, but I have lost the cable news channels and much more, and also no hbO. I think my linksys are done, so sad they worked so well.
....
In the past we had ceton employees on this board, that had contact with comcast over these types of issues, Maybe some are still looking in.
Linksys definitely are dead as they don't support mpeg-4. Low def are all in mpeg-2 and should still work.
Ceton might be able to help, but the issue also occurs with my HdHomerun cable tuner, so not specific to Ceton.
I agree not specific to ceton, and is specific to comcast. In the past ceton contacted comcast about similar issues, I think it may have been copy protection flags. anyway I am going to open a ticket with ceton and see if i get anywhere, or see if they are still there
I opened a ticket with Ceton on 1/17. So far they asked for the Infinity diagnostic information which I sent. I have not heard from them since. It should be easy for them to recreate the problem.

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Crash2009

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#63

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:10 pm

Why don't you record a DRM MPEG4 and upload it here for us to test. I am curious to see if it will play on mine.

Cancel that idea, I don't have your PlayReady Keys. Can you see why I keep going back to PlayReady?

I think it would be difficult for Ceton (or anybody) to test your Keys.

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spanner

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#64

Post by spanner » Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:16 pm

coolwhip, just curious are you also using intel I3 with onboard Intel HD Graphics. I would like to rule out if this is a problem with on board intel graphic cards, and the new comcast mpeg4 premium channel stream like has been suggested.

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#65

Post by coolwhip » Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:22 pm

spanner wrote:coolwhip, just curious are you also using intel I3 with onboard Intel HD Graphics. I would like to rule out if this is a problem with on board intel graphic cards, and the new comcast mpeg4 premium channel stream like has been suggested.
HTPC is AMD CPU with AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics card. The HTPC is able to play H.264 protected content.

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#66

Post by cwinfield » Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:23 pm

whoareyou wrote:"Uninstall and re-install the extenders. The MCX account is still thinks you have the old graphics. You might have to run tv setup again to update the PlayReady. As a matter of fact, the new graphics might have broken PlayReady AllReady."

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately all this has already been done. No difference.

I also removed the extender and paired it with a computer that doesn't have the issue (Nvidia GPU). Same result. This second machine is also a windows 8.1 (as opposed to original Windows 7 whole house machine), as I wanted to rule out a Windows 7 problem.
Whoareyou suggests that it is a Comcast specific issue and affects Silicon dust tuners as well...

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#67

Post by coolwhip » Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:33 pm

IMG_1330.JPG
IMG_1329.JPG
Here's a clue. I was able to coax this image out of my Ceton Echo by switching from TCM (H.264 unprotected) to TMCHDw (H.264 protected content) As you can see data is getting to the Echo and it's not just a black screen. Sound is OK and the image is playing the video from the underlying movie. I believe this points the finger more towards a problem in the Echo. One of the files is the credits at the end of the movie.

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Crash2009

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#68

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:49 pm

Both of those look like a signal problem.

Top one looks like +or-12 dbmv or worse


Second one looks like +or-12 dbmv

What are your signal strengths at the tuner?
Last edited by Crash2009 on Sat Jan 30, 2016 8:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Crash2009

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#69

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:52 pm

What tuner do you have?

Signal problems can be Coax or sometimes Network

Antivirus or 3rd party Firewall can also simulate signal issues.

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#70

Post by cwinfield » Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:58 pm

If you have a Ceton tuner and want to check your signal levels follow this post http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 406#p99406

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Crash2009

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#71

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Jan 30, 2016 8:02 pm

HDHR Prime 3CC signal can be checked here.
Attachments
SignalStrength001.jpg

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#72

Post by coolwhip » Sat Jan 30, 2016 8:04 pm

Crash2009 wrote:Both of those look like a signal problem.

Top one looks like +or-12 dbmv

Second one looks like +or- 8 dbmv

What are your signal strengths at the tuner?
I had this channel playing perfectly on my HTPC at the same time. Looks more like a decoder problem to me as picture is not jerky and no sign of data loss.

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#73

Post by cwinfield » Sat Jan 30, 2016 8:10 pm

coolwhip wrote:
Crash2009 wrote:Both of those look like a signal problem.

Top one looks like +or-12 dbmv

Second one looks like +or- 8 dbmv

What are your signal strengths at the tuner?
I had this channel playing perfectly on my HTPC at the same time. Looks more like a decoder problem to me as picture is not jerky and no sign of data loss.
I'm going to agree with you there. To me it kinda reminds me of when I tried to play a MKV that the echo didn't like.

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Crash2009

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#74

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Jan 30, 2016 8:16 pm

Its hard to tell from here. Looks like Kablewie to me

Shortcut to Kablewie screencap

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 810#p25810

First suggestion was Signal, next was Hard Drive, as those are the easiest to eliminate.

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#75

Post by coolwhip » Sat Jan 30, 2016 8:49 pm

Crash2009 wrote:Its hard to tell from here. Looks like Kablewie to me

Shortcut to Kablewie screencap

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 810#p25810

First suggestion was Signal, next was Hard Drive, as those are the easiest to eliminate.
I believe that HD and signal have been eliminated since this channel was playing fine on HTPC.

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#76

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Jan 30, 2016 8:51 pm

Signal cannot be eliminated until it is measured.

Hard drive cannot be eliminated until it is tested.

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#77

Post by coolwhip » Sat Jan 30, 2016 9:39 pm

cwinfield wrote:
coolwhip wrote:
Crash2009 wrote:Both of those look like a signal problem.

Top one looks like +or-12 dbmv

Second one looks like +or- 8 dbmv

What are your signal strengths at the tuner?
I had this channel playing perfectly on my HTPC at the same time. Looks more like a decoder problem to me as picture is not jerky and no sign of data loss.
I'm going to agree with you there. To me it kinda reminds me of when I tried to play a MKV that the echo didn't like.
Exactly. I think data is getting to the Echo but the Echo has the wrong color palette or no palette. (Probably because of how I kludged the Echo into displaying something.) Therefore it doesn't know how to display the data correctly. I also had problems that looked similar to this with MKV.

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#78

Post by coolwhip » Tue Feb 02, 2016 12:10 am

The reason the my screen shots above look like they do is because H.264 uses skip encryption for protected content. So what I'm seeing is the Ceton Echo putting encrypted video data on the screen. Apparently I glitched the Echo into a situation where it should prevent start code emulation but does not.

"The protected block uses 10% skip encryption. Each 16-byte block of encrypted data is followed by up to nine 16-byte blocks of unencrypted data. If any block is encrypted (because the NAL unit’s length is greater than 48 bytes), start code emulation prevention must again be applied over the entire NAL unit, including the unencrypted sections."

MPEG2 and H.264 are both encrypted in this manner. This is more than I want to know about this. My take is that the ability to play H.264 protected content was never part of the extender landscape. The question that still remains is; Why was MPEG2 protected content implemented?

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#79

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Feb 02, 2016 1:33 am

RyC wrote:Extenders don't go through the PC GPU at all.
I'm not understanding your statement.

What do they go through? And where does it come from if not from the GPU. No GPU = No Nothing

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#80

Post by RyC » Tue Feb 02, 2016 1:41 am

Crash2009 wrote:
RyC wrote:Extenders don't go through the PC GPU at all.
I'm not understanding your statement.

What do they go through? And where does it come from if not from the GPU. No GPU = No Nothing
Extenders have their own onboard GPU or system-on-chip that handles all the video on them. For example, my extenders are connected to a "virtualized" instance of Windows 7, where all the hardware is abstracted into software so I can run multiple OSes at the same time on the same computer. There is no GPU connected, just a fake software GPU that can barely run Aero. Yet my extenders run perfectly well, including protected channels (no H.264 here yet). The PC just streams the video file to the extender for it to decode itself.

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