New beta firmware candidate for InfiniTV tuners available

[timaster]

I am in an area that was switched to SDV close to a year ago. I have two of the inf6eth appliances feeding different PC's and such in my home. Attached to each unit, is a Motorola MTR700 TA running firmware 1.37.

The current beta did seem to speed up channel changes and such. It also seemed to increase the amount of time that goes by between spontaneous reboots. Sometimes the two units would reboot around the same time, sometimes only one would do so and not the other. I would say that I go around 2-4 weeks between these.

The big issues I have seen with all firmware (the official and the two betas I tried, including the most recent):

1) If the inf6eth reboots, I usually have to reboot it a second time (and reboot the TA) to get it to properly talk to the TA. This is of course in addition to having to restart the HTPC or restart the MCE receiver service.

2) Occasionally the TA seems to stop resolving channels, even if the inf6 hasn't rebooted. This happens every few weeks. I usually reboot both units at that point.

2) The TA never EVER EVER sends more than one channel map to the infinitv tuner. What I have noticed, and I don't know if it is causative, or coincidental, is that when I have to do the reset, when the TA syncs to the inf6, the number of channels in the map is different than what it was previously. I'm not sure what this means, or if it is significant. Does anyone normally see more than one channel map update on the TA screen? Does the lack of subsequent updates mean that as the cable system adds/changes/removes channels, I wont see some them til I reboot?

And a question, while I can see the number of channels in the TA map, is there some way to actually get the list out of it? You can do it for the cable card one on that screen, but the TA one would be highly useful.

[kd6icz]

Developed an interesting problem with ETH.

Tuners work for a few days, and then I get "there is no signal or it may be off the air" I reboot the PC not the tuner, and problem goes away.

This was never present with Verizon FiOS, but developed after switching to Time Warner Cable (with tuning adapter).

When TV is working, the signal levels are between -3 and 0, and noise is about 36 or 38.

I want to think it is TWC related issue, since we never had it with FiOS (signal levels were much higher, about 3 to 5). The fact the rebooting PC seems to resolve it is just more puzzling, since I think the need to reboot the tuner would have been an indication of TWC signal related culprit.

Sounds similar to the issue I'm having. Also TWC. I have narrowed mine down to recently relocated digital channels to previous analog frequencies. In my case channels 418, 432, and 463 all reside on 85 MHz. 85 MHz is the old analog channel 6.

This means TWC most likely installed a brand new shiny QAM 256 transmitter in place of the old analog transmitter. The new transmitter is either using a slightly hotter deviation or is simply out of tune causing our Ceton's to lose lock on the carrier.

How we are going to fix this is beyond me. Especially when my cable company issued DCX3200 set top box has no issue with the same channels.

[SoNic67]

I just received and installed today the InfiniTV ETH today, replacing a HDPrime tuner. Activated it, but channels sometimes take a long time to switch - up to 30 seconds. Sometimes is as fast as it was with the Prime (2-3 seconds). Sometimes it fails with "Service is not available, no signal on this channel". Eventually it says "Weak signal" and after a little bit switches to image.
Windows7 32 bit, network has a 1GB switch, Verizon FIOS.
I have updated the hardware and firmware with the latest provided by the installation program - this beta firmware.
Driver: 13.6.3.1088
FW: 14.4.6.21
HW: 7359

Any ideas of why is doing that?

[CrunchyDoodle]

I just received and installed today the InfiniTV ETH today, replacing a HDPrime tuner. Activated it, but channels sometimes take a long time to switch - up to 30 seconds. Sometimes is as fast as it was with the Prime (2-3 seconds). Sometimes it fails with "Service is not available, no signal on this channel". Eventually it says "Weak signal" and after a little bit switches to image.
Windows7 32 bit, network has a 1GB switch, Verizon FIOS.
I have updated the hardware and firmware with the latest provided by the installation program - this beta firmware.
Driver: 13.6.3.1088
FW: 14.4.6.21
HW: 7359

Any ideas of why is doing that?

I wish I knew so I could fix mine.

With Time Warner Cable about to go full encrypted; even the over-the-air stuff, I swapped out my HDHR and HDHR Prime tuners for two Ceton ETH 6 boxes. At first that worked quite well, and now I'm getting partial recordings nearly every day with "weak signal" or other false reports. The HDHR Prime almost never did anything bad, and usually recovered to make a good recording. The Ceton stuff is just not as good. Yesterday, I got only 4 minutes of Jon Stewart on one system, while in the other room, the whole 30 minutes recorded fine. The very first Ceton I bought was just no good - swapped that out for a new one, which was OK. With two systems and two Ceton boxes recording many of the same shows redundantly, I see how bad Ceton is compared to the HDHR Prime. If there was a 6 channel HDHR Prime, I wouldn't even look at Ceton.

Bye.

[kd6icz]

I just received and installed today the InfiniTV ETH today, replacing a HDPrime tuner. Activated it, but channels sometimes take a long time to switch - up to 30 seconds. Sometimes is as fast as it was with the Prime (2-3 seconds). Sometimes it fails with "Service is not available, no signal on this channel". Eventually it says "Weak signal" and after a little bit switches to image.
Windows7 32 bit, network has a 1GB switch, Verizon FIOS.
I have updated the hardware and firmware with the latest provided by the installation program - this beta firmware.
Driver: 13.6.3.1088
FW: 14.4.6.21
HW: 7359

Any ideas of why is doing that?

I wish I knew so I could fix mine.

With Time Warner Cable about to go full encrypted; even the over-the-air stuff, I swapped out my HDHR and HDHR Prime tuners for two Ceton ETH 6 boxes. At first that worked quite well, and now I'm getting partial recordings nearly every day with "weak signal" or other false reports. The HDHR Prime almost never did anything bad, and usually recovered to make a good recording. The Ceton stuff is just not as good. Yesterday, I got only 4 minutes of Jon Stewart on one system, while in the other room, the whole 30 minutes recorded fine. The very first Ceton I bought was just no good - swapped that out for a new one, which was OK. With two systems and two Ceton boxes recording many of the same shows redundantly, I see how bad Ceton is compared to the HDHR Prime. If there was a 6 channel HDHR Prime, I wouldn't even look at Ceton.

Bye.

I'm having the same issue with TWC as you and blueiedgod. We have to start submitting tickets to Ceton so they can correct the issue. I think it's a new piece pic Arris modulation equipment TWC is deploying that our Ceton's don't like. I'm pretty sure out can be corrected with a firmware update but we won't know until they get some data to work with.

[SoNic67]

This morning I got "No tuners available in your system". Rebooting the tuner fixed the issue.
I don't remember when was that I had to reboot the HDHR Prime

[kd6icz]

What's the website that had previous versions of firmware? At this point my system is pretty much useless and support has run out of suggestions. If it wasn't for the cable box I rent from the cable company I would have no TV at all. So at this point I'll try anything.

[Mpgrimm2]

What's the website that had previous versions of firmware? At this point my system is pretty much useless and support has run out of suggestions. If it wasn't for the cable box I rent from the cable company I would have no TV at all. So at this point I'll try anything.

See...
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 402#p64402

[Mpgrimm2]

Same boat here. The first year of using my iTv4 PCIe was great until the switch to sdv, then the tuning errors started so I started updating FW. After about 4 fw updates over next 2 years of owning my iTv4 it would no longer accept FW updates, (a year ago) it started to not recognize the CableCard/no tuner available and 2 weeks ago stopped recognizing it altogether, so its back in the box. Dead.

Figured I was SOL so I timidly ordered the iTV6 ETH (with free Echo combo) last weekend despite my wife's misgivings and just hooked it up at my home's 42" media panel (Phone/LAN/Cable. All Gigabit/CAT6/RG6) which improved SNR etc. vs PCIe version at TV/PC. One of the first things the directions ask is to do a FW update which has me nervous ( Now on 14.4.6.21 Stable ? but shows as beta on Ceton Diag WebPage UI). Got the new CC paired and the MTR700 TA that I used previously showing up in the diagnostic web page (plugged into the iTV6 ETH).

Everything runs great...when it works (Tuners 1-4 on main Win7 PC/3.2Ghz Phenom x4/16gb ram/Gigabyte MB; Tuner 6 on Master BR PC (HP m7350n Win7 2.8Ghz Pent D/4Gb DDR2); Tuner 5 on my laptop (HP DV6-1030us Win7 3.1Ghz Core2Duo/8Gb DDR2/Wifi N for testing only... pixilation expected), 1 Echo in guest BR; 1 Xbox 360/extender in son's room). No lag, pixelation, etc. Channel change times are reasonable, even with everything running. Don't have network tuner drivers loaded either.
Previously on the iTV4 PCIe, whenever I had a power outage/blip (10-20 times a year) or Windows Update reboots main PC (always on/no sleep, etc), I have problems where I either have "no available tuner", can't recognize cablecard, some TA issue or Media Center is asking to "Setup the cablecard" again. When this happens, the only way to get things working seems to be to wipe out/rediscover the tuner configuration via Ceton app and go through the MCE TV setup again (hoping it sees more than 1 tuner).
Yesterday, 2 days into using the iTV6 ETH, I had a power blip/reboot and had to re-setup the tuner on the main PC again, which sucks. Other than buying a couple of UPS's, any thoughts here?
Motherboard drivers are as up to date as the Gigabyte site has (2011) or on a windows update driver version and the iTV6 ETH is on latest "stable" FW.

Currently tuned to NBC HD. Signal Level: 3.1 dBmV, Signal To Noise Level: 37.6 dB (typ.)

MainPc Specs (Built Aug2010):
- Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H v2.0 fw: FF
- AMD Phenom II X2 550 3.1Ghz AM3 CPU (Unlocked Cores 3 & 4 = X4 B50)
- Corsair Hydro H50 CPU Liquid Cooler
- OCZ 16GB DDR3 PC10666 1333MHZ (4 X 4GB) p/n: OCZ3G1333LV8GK CL 9-9-9-20 1.65v
- Visiontek Radeon HD 5670 1GB DDR5 PCIe (Catalyst 14-4)
- ASUS 8X Blu Ray/DVD Combo Drive SATA
- Ceton InfiniTv6 ETH Fw: 14.4.6.21
(replaced iTV4 PCIe on 7/12/14 due to can't see CableCard/fw fail)
- Seagate 500GB Serial ATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-3G (OS)
- Seagate 1TB Serial ATA HD 7200/32MB/SATA-3G
- Seagate 1.5TB FreeAgent Portable on USB (for DVD rips in MCE)
- Cooler Master Gladiator 600 ATX Case
- OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular Power Suppy
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SP1
- HP USB eHome IR Receiver for Media Center (for Harmony 700)
- LG 60in Plasma 60PS60 (HDMI-1)

7/20/14 Update:
Alright. Starting to get problems regularly with the main PC dropping tuners from the iTV6 ETH, No Tuner Available, etc, just by turning TV/AV Receiver OFF/ON, or just randomly dropping out in the early morning while at work (wife sends me a text).

Sometimes when I loose tuners 1-4 on the Main PC (Living Room), I will go check Tuner 5 (laptop) and Tuner 6 (Bedrm PC) and they will be out as well (No Tuner Available) or will work until I try to change the channel and then I will get the no tuner message. Other times it seems like the Main PC (Liv Rm) is the only one with issues and no amount of rebooting PC or power cycling the iTV 6 and TA in the media closet will work causing me to use the Ceton App to Clear Tuner Config, Rediscover Tuners, and then re-setup TV Signal and Guide all over again in Media Center ( I have not had to Clear Tuner Config. on the other 2 PC's with tuner 5,6 yet).

Note:
- MainPC and Laptop have Norton Internet Security, Bedroom PC on has MS Security Essentials.
- Network: Cat6 Cable/Patch Panel, DLink DIR-655 RevA Gigabit Router FW 1.35NA (Lan IP & PW changed from default), Dlink DGS-2208 Gigabit Sw

On the chance, that it is related to my home built PC, I have decided to reformat and reload Win7 x64 Home from scratch... SP1 done, still getting updates. Will make a restore point and load up enough basics for a working TV before heading to bed this morning (Also set up bios/drivers with AHCI SATA vs RAID SATA drivers for MB).

Software plan for mainPC...
- MS Security Essentials (Prefer Norton Internet Security, but give this a shot): done
- Adobe Reader/Flash Player
- Ceton iTV6 Drivers/Diag app Fw: 14.4.6.21
- My Movies for windows 5.00 Build 6
- DvdFab 9
- Netflix for Media Center/Silverlight
- TotalMediaTheatre 6.7.1.xxx (Need for BluRays but not needed immediately. Will wait and see)
- Nero11 (Not needed immediately. Will wait and see)
- Office 2010 (Not needed immediately. Will wait and see)

If this doesn't work, next step will be a support ticket I guess.

Mpgrimm2

7-24-14 Update (See attached):
- Still having weird loss of Tuner issues that go away by cycling power on the iTV6/TA and restarting the MCE app.

- Only have a basic load of Win7/Ceton/Netflix/Adobe Reader/MS Security Essentials.

- Currently I have traced part of the issue to my DLink DIR655 RevA3 Router (FW 1.35NA) which reboots itself periodically and dumps my entire network. Apparently the Ceton iTV6 ETH can't re-establish communication to my media center PC's once it gets it's assigned Static IP back after the router reboots randomly.

- Yesterday I updated the DIR655 to FW 1.37NA, but it just rebooted (24hrs later).

I am going to go pull the router out of my media panel and put it on the shelf outside to see if it is a heat issue before I spend another $120 - $200 on an A/C Router and enrage my wife further with my recent spending!
(Note: iTV6 and TA are not in my media panel)

8-2-14 Update:
Managed a week of solid Tuner/Extender use from the iTV6 ETH / MTR700 with my Router outside the cabinet.

Got a text at work from my wife last night saying MainPC/media center had "no tuners available" but came back after power cycling the iTV6 ETH/TA.
Checked the router this morning and sure enough, it rebooted around 11pm for some reason. The router seems to be a big chunk of my problems.

And still need to install the rest of my MCE's apps.

@erkotz,
Q: Would the router/LAN dropout have affected the previous iTV4 PCIe that was dedicated to only the mainPC in the Living room?

[JohnW248]

Do you have everything connected to the router or do you have a switch in the network connections? I think if you put in an unmanaged (read cheap) Gig Switch 8 port or whatever you need and just a jumper to the router and everything else is inside (tuner, extenders, other computers) you'll eliminate the router issue. This might also help with your no tuners available after a power drop. I would seriously put in some UPS devices if you have that high a rate of power line drops. I have them on all machines and rarely have a power drop issue (although it does happen).

Also stick with MS SE, Norton & McAfee are not your friend if you're running cableCARD and network tuners. They seem to be upset with high package usage by devices on a network and will shut things down on scans.

[JohnW248]

I'm having the same issue with TWC as you and blueiedgod. We have to start submitting tickets to Ceton so they can correct the issue. I think it's a new piece pic Arris modulation equipment TWC is deploying that our Ceton's don't like. I'm pretty sure out can be corrected with a firmware update but we won't know until they get some data to work with.

FYI, anyone having trouble with TWC (especially West Valley Los Angeles Division....keep a log of your tuner problems and what they were and call into to the cableCARD help desk with each and every problem and have your account notated.

THEN call the Billing Department (it takes a while, they don't want to talk to customers, just take money) and COMPLAIN and get a credit for the lack of service. I have had all sorts of problems not related directly to my hardware (or even their TAs) such as tuners restarting, TAs restarting on their own, bad OOB signal lock, and on and on. You certainly can open a ticket with Ceton but as it stands right now the stuff TWC is doing doesn't seem to be anything they can override so money talks and the more you get back from TWC the quicker they'll get it fixed.

[kd6icz]

I will be calling first thing in the morning. They moved the Dodgers channel to an old analog frequency (channel 39 / 315 MHz) and about an hour into the game it started to macroblock and eventually ended up at the weak signal screen.

If you can't watch the one thing TWC has to offer that no other provider has then what are they good for?

[SoNic67]

I returned my Ceton and reinstalled/repaired the Prime. It works without issues, so for me it was either a bad Ceton box or their software issues.

As for TWC issues - if they are related to unstandardized channel frequencies, you can open a complaint with FCC too:

https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form ... type=1088C

[JohnW248]

I returned my Ceton and reinstalled/repaired the Prime. It works without issues, so for me it was either a bad Ceton box or their software issues.

As for TWC issues - if they are related to unstandardized channel frequencies, you can open a complaint with FCC too:

https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form ... type=1088C

I'd suggest you keep an eye on your SD Prime logs as well, I keep seeing:

20140731-12:16:13 CableCARD: message: An EAS Participant has issued a Required Weekly Test
20140731-21:34:06 CableCARD: cci authentication error (cchost_copy_protection:1132)
20140802-16:08:25 CableCARD: cci authentication error (cchost_copy_protection:1132)
20140803-15:48:50 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 465 (483MHz-42) access = subscribed

[JohnW248]

And on another SD Prime

20140730-11:40:01 CableCARD: message: An EAS Participant has issued a Required Weekly Test
20140730-21:25:31 CableCARD: Tuning Resolver downstream status: none
20140730-21:25:31 CableCARD: Tuning Resolver upstream status: none
20140730-21:25:51 CableCARD: Tuning Resolver downstream status: success
20140730-21:25:51 CableCARD: Tuning Resolver upstream status: success
20140731-04:58:47 CableCARD: Tuner0: vchannel 407 (603MHz-302) access = subscribed
20140731-12:16:13 CableCARD: message: An EAS Participant has issued a Required Weekly Test
20140731-19:43:54 CableCARD: cci authentication error (cchost_copy_protection:1132)
20140801-03:01:08 CableCARD: Tuner2: vchannel 405 (609MHz-306) access = subscribed

My problems started on June 19 when I rebooted a machine and a 6 Tuner PCIe Ceton which had been working perfectly for a year and a half couldn't get an OOB lock. New cableCARD and same problem. It's been a six week crisis until I got the 6 tuner PCIe Cetons back on line and it had nothing to do with Signal Level (had truck roll for that) incursion, or anything other than the signals sent by the headend. I was told that there are problems in Moto areas but it is a different problem than they have with the Cisco equipment.

[erkotz]

What's the website that had previous versions of firmware? At this point my system is pretty much useless and support has run out of suggestions. If it wasn't for the cable box I rent from the cable company I would have no TV at all. So at this point I'll try anything.

If you haven't already, once you have an issue, collect a Ceton InfiniTV diagnostic and open a support ticket at http://www.cetoncorp.com/support/

@erkotz,
Q: Would the router/LAN dropout have affected the previous iTV4 PCIe that was dedicated to only the mainPC in the Living room?

If the InfiniTV4 is configured to use Network Tuners, potentially. If not, no.

[kd6icz]

If you haven't already, once you have an issue, collect a Ceton InfiniTV diagnostic and open a support ticket at http://www.cetoncorp.com/support/

I have. I've sent 10 or more. They have no answer. The last response was to send my account information to Ceton so they could contact TWC.

But as long as my leased Motorola set top box is working flawlessly I don't think we have a leg to stand on. It's obviously a tuner limitation within the InfiniTV not being able to properly track the incoming signal.

At this point I'm just hoping enough people have the same issue and you will be able to come out with a new firmware that will adapt to the new head end equipment.

[erkotz]

If you haven't already, once you have an issue, collect a Ceton InfiniTV diagnostic and open a support ticket at http://www.cetoncorp.com/support/

I have. I've sent 10 or more. They have no answer. The last response was to send my account information to Ceton so they could contact TWC.

But as long as my leased Motorola set top box is working flawlessly I don't think we have a leg to stand on. It's obviously a tuner limitation within the InfiniTV not being able to properly track the incoming signal.

At this point I'm just hoping enough people have the same issue and you will be able to come out with a new firmware that will adapt to the new head end equipment.

Please PM me your ticket number.

[kd6icz]

Please PM me your ticket number.

Sent

[erkotz]

Please PM me your ticket number.

Sent

I just looked through your ticket. The tuners on your InfiniTV are reporting a signal-quality issue which appears to be the root-cause here. If you can reply with the requested information, we will reach out to Time Warner on this.