WEIRD Problem -- ONE channel won't tune

[McGary]

For about 3 months I've had a very weird issue.

Win7 media center; 2 HDHomeRun Primes; Spectrum (Time Warner) cable in San Antonio. Everything works perfectly EXCEPT we stopped receiving HallMark Movies & Mysteries (happens to shown on two channels -- 84 and 629). We received it fine until we didn't (sometime around mid-August … timing not certain as we were gone a month and then another couple weeks due to a funeral; and we've had a lot of medical issues so I haven't really tackled this). This happens to be one of my wife's favorite channels, and she's really upset now that she can't record all of the new Christmas movies they're showing.

I finally decided to tackle this today, and spent almost 3 hrs on the phone with Spectrum, getting passed up the chain and finally to Cable Card support -- NOBODY really has any idea what's happening. They're going to send somebody out to "fix" this in a couple days, but I'm skeptical that it's an issue with our signal or equipment, since that's the only channel we can't watch.

Has anybody ever seen this issue? We get ~ 250 channels, and ALL of them work just fine EXCEPT 84 and 629 => both of which are HallMark Movies & Mysteries.

The only thing I've noticed is that my HD HomeRun's have somewhat dated firmware (20150826), but I'm a bit reluctant to change anything until I at least know what is going on … seems VERY unlikely this is a firmware issue.

[jachin99]

For me, hallmark is marked as copy-once. Do you get any other channels that are marked as copy-once where you could see if there might be a playready problem?

[McGary]

Yes, a large number of them. Time Warner / Spectrum marks just about everything that way. And HallMark (not HMM) tunes in just fine.

When I select either of the HMM channels, I get a message that says "There is currently no TV signal detected for this channel. The channel may be temporarily off the air, or you may need to adjust or reconnect your TV antenna." A couple seconds later, another window pops up that says "Message from the TV Service Provider: Requested channel is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

Clearly NEITHER of those are actually true. And this has been going on for over 3 months -- but ONLY for HMM !!

Really weird -- and frustrating. (BTW if it was a PlayReady issue I'd expect a message about DRM … not a complete absence of the signal)

I suspect this is something really strange about the tuner adapters, since our cable provider uses switched digital … but I can't imagine what, since I'd think everyone would have the same issue if that was the case.

[Space]

When you look in the logs of the Prime, does it say it is trying to tune the correct channel?

You can view the log using this URL (use the IP address of the Prime instead of the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx):

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/log.html

It may be trying to tune a channel other than the correct one, if that is the case then you need to edit the channel in WMC (edit sources) and remove the check mark next to any source (tuner/channel) that does not have the correct channel number and tuner you want for that channel.

[McGary]

Turns out they had removed the channel from their "legacy" lineup with no notification.

You'd think the telephone support folks would have seen that -- but after 3 hours on the phone a couple days ago they said they needed to send a tech out to "check your equipment" (I don't have ANY of their equipment except for my cable cards).

Tech chatted about my setup for 5 minutes (he was impressed with my 9-channels at a time recording capability with 20TB of space); checked our account details, and noted they had removed that channel from our lineup in August. I simply have to switch to a new "Spectrum" lineup and all will be well. I actually suspected the lineup might have changed -- and ASKED the "customer service" (in quotes because I often feel there's little "service" in those phone calls) rep if this was a channel we should be getting -- and was assured it WAS. In any event, as soon as I call and switch to a different lineup, all will be well.

[d00zah]

You can always verify your channel line-up online:

https://www.spectrum.com/browse/content ... nel-lineup

[jaimeknapp]

Turns out they had removed the channel from their "legacy" lineup with no notification.

I still have a very old legacy TWC account in San Antonio. I just checked and receive HMM ch 629 through my Ceton just fine. I am not sure there is any online resource to see a current lineup for legacy accounts.