Cox installed Cisco STA1520 and now WMC doesn't work

[QingGuy]

We weren't getting all the Cox stations we subscribed to so we called Cox and they said at the beginning of the they year they moved to using a Cisco STA1520 Box with TiVo and HTPC and someone would need to come out and install it. Guys came out this morning to install (placed between wall and cable card and plugged into USB port) and when I fire-up WMC it locks-up after about 30 seconds. Their guys worked on it and worked on it and basiclly said, the STA1520 works so it must be your HTPC, right, my HTPC was working fine when you guys walked in my door!

Anyone experience anything similar? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[QingGuy]

Problem solved, these Cox technicians were a bunch of morons. First to connected couldn't get it to work so they called their supervisor. Supervisor came over looked at it and said everything was installed correctly so the problem has to be my HTPC. I call their cable card support and while speaking with them I look at the wiring of the STA1520 and I see they're running from the wall to the STA1520 and from the Wall to my cable card, what the crap? They didn't connect my cable card to the STA1520 via the "cable out" port on the back of the STA1520! It was wired directly to the wall, DUH!!! Two techs and their supervisor missed that! Problem solved

[signcarver]

"Proper" way to wire any TA is to use a splitter for the coax and thus each device connects "to the wall" not each other... the out port on the back of the TA is usually @#$%... moto has a 6db drop compared to -3.5 for a splitter so it is always advised for them, ... on low signals the cisco might be a little better going though it as it is supposed to compensate for the loss but often I find signals >800MHz have bad results going through the TA... all communication between the tuner and TA is done by the USB cable. When a TA is used, all tuning resolution (where to tune the channel) is handles by the TA so it must be properly set up. If the out is not used, it should be properly terminated.

It would have been nice if you looked at the logs and the TA diagnostics and it would have told you what your problem was (maybe not you but if you posted it-many many pages, someone could tell)... More than likely what happened was the TA finally was authorized. But it is possible if you have low signals that going through it was better for you but for most it won't be. You may wish to check the RF diagnostics of the TA (2 pages) and it will show you what your levels are like.

[mike_ekim]

"Proper" way to wire any TA is to use a splitter for the coax and thus each device connects "to the wall" not each other

Wow, great tip. I googled "Tuning Adapter Installation" and the cable companies say what you said, use a splitter and not the pass through. I don't think I really looked at the instructions when I set mine up. I may switch my setup this weekend and write down some before/after signal strength and quality information.

[barnabas1969]

Just FYI, I've found that "it depends". Sometimes it's better to use a splitter before the TA and tuner, and sometimes it's better to use the cable-out port on the TA to feed your tuner. It all depends on your signal strength and quality.

[mdavej]

Don't know about Cisco, but the pass thru on Moto TA is terrible. Huge drop.

[barnabas1969]

The Cisco TA appears to have a built-in amplifier. In my config, the TA pass-thru actually gives better results.

If the Motorola TA attenuates the signal (the drop you mentioned), then it might help some people if their signal strength is too high.

For full disclosure:

I have a 9-way (or maybe 8-way?) unity-gain amplifier at the Point-Of-Entry (POE) of my house. Each output is supposed to be the same signal strength as the input. It was installed by the cable company after I made a lot of noise about my signal... and they sent a team of 4 people to diagnose my problems. They fixed problems up-stream from my house which affected my whole neighborhood, replaced the line from the utility pole to my house, replaced the "tap" on the pole, ran new lines through my attic, and several other things... all for free.

The end result was that the signal in my wiring closet was pretty darn close to what was coming through the feed at the POE. From there, it goes through a tap which gives -12dB to the cable modem, and -1dB to a 2-way splitter. The 2-way splitter drops it another 3.5dB, resulting in a total drop of -4.5dB at the input of the TA. Once the TA does its thing... amplifying the signal... the tuner receives a signal which is pretty close to 0dB.

It works VERY WELL.

[barnabas1969]

Here's a sampling of my signals. Of course, channel numbers don't necessarily line up with frequencies.

Frequency, signal strength, SNR:
273Mhz 0.6dB 36.2
363MHz -0.1dB 35.6
393Mhz -0.6dB 35.8
399Mhz -0.6dB 34.5
453Mhz -0.8dB 34.1
531Mhz -1.9dB 34.1
537Mhz -2.1dB 34.1
669Mhz -1.3dB 35.2
687Mhz -1.6dB 35.1
693Mhz -1.4dB 35.2
711Mhz -1.6dB 34.9
753Mhz -2.5dB 35.2
765Mhz -3.8dB 34.1

[mike_ekim]

Everything works with my setup so I'll just let sleeping dogs lie and not mess with anything.

[QingGuy]

Problem solved, these Cox technicians were a bunch of morons. First to connected couldn't get it to work so they called their supervisor. Supervisor came over looked at it and said everything was installed correctly so the problem has to be my HTPC. I call their cable card support and while speaking with them I look at the wiring of the STA1520 and I see they're running from the wall to the STA1520 and from the Wall to my cable card, what the crap? They didn't connect my cable card to the STA1520 via the "cable out" port on the back of the STA1520! It was wired directly to the wall, DUH!!! Two techs and their supervisor missed that! Problem solved

Problem NOT solved. Moving wires enabled some channels but I was still getting "subscription needed" error on several others.

So, here's where I am today. Cox has been out, exchanged TA, changed out all connections, tested levels etc. and everything checks out OK. I plug the STA1520 into my HTPC USB and all hell breaks loose; WMC locks-up and I have to use task manager to kill it, I try to shut down HTPC and it never logs off, if it finally does and goes to shutting down mode it never shuts down. Power HTPC down, remove TA USB connection, power machine up and everything works fine with the exception of my not getting about 25% of the channels we subscribe to; on these we receive the subscription required. Oh one last thing, several of the stations don't match what the guide shows.

Lastly, when I have the TA connected to my HTPC and I run the Ceton program (I think under device diagnostics) all items are green check with the exception of one, "not enough tunning adapter attached" this one is red with the white line through it.

Cox was out there for three hours today, guy was much better than the moron's I referenced earlier. He's bringing his supervisor back tomorrow. Anyone seen anything like this before? Getting frustrated.

[Crash2009]

Anyone seen anything like this before?

They always send out Moe, Larry, and Curly first.