Two missing cable channels

[rbmorse]

Using a Ceton InfiniTV4 fed from Comcast Digital HD service in Albuquerque for the last six months or so and have been pleased with the result. Yesterday, I noted that I could not receive channels 255 and 256 via the Ceton. They work fine on from Comcast's cable box on the TV in the other room.

Symptoms:

1. All other channels to which I have a subscription, both SD and HD, work fine (I tried every blessed one of them).

2. Tuning either 255 (SpeedHD) or 256 (FXHD) gives me the Media center background, the info flash with the channel number and program description at the bottom, then either nothing at all or an error that reports, "There is currently no TV signal detected for this channel. The channel may be temporarily off the air. Try again later."

3. Under "check channel authorization" on the CableCard tab of the Ceton Diagnostic Tool, entering 255 or 256 returns "Tuning Channel 255 (256)... not found in channel list or signal too poor." Signal strength is around 13 to 14.5 dBMv with a reported SNR of around 34dB.


4. Looking at the Log on the WEB diagnostic page there is this entry (among many others):

00094.206971: mpeg: cetonmpeg_get_pmt_with_pat_w_timeout:357 WARNING: Unable to find program number 29 in pat
00094.208221: ocur: cas_GetPatPmtAndPids:1977 ERROR: [1] No pat returned


I spoke to Comcast about this and they were enthusiastic and cheerful and clueless, although they did say they "reset" the cable card during both of the conversations I had with them on the issue. No change in behavior, of course.

I have an idea that the problem is on Comcast's end...my cablecard....er, their cablecard...is somehow misconfigured after months of successful operation, but I apparently don't have the right vocabulary to steer the cheerful gint or gintess on the other end of my phone into doing the right thing to correct the problem.

I'm afraid their next step will to be schedule a truck roll which I'm trying to avoid because they will make me remove the MOCA bridge that feeds the other room and the inline signal amplifier required to get adequate signal strength for acceptable picture quality. That's not difficult, but they are difficult to reach and I do not believe they are the problem (although if I'm wrong on this I'd appreciate a nice heads-up).

I'd deeply appreciate any insight and suggestions on how to resolve this issue.

[richard1980]

Your signal strength is high. I don't know if that would cause the issue, but you may try removing the amplifier and see what happens. You want your signal strength as close to 0 as you can get, with +10 and -10 being the upper and lower limits.

[rbmorse]

Thank you for your response. I pulled the amp as suggested, which saw the signal level drop to the -19dBMv range. I'll have to find an attenuator, or a couple of splitters or something <g>. Thank you for the information on the optimal signal strength range.

Didn't help with the missing channels as suspected...I'm

[barnabas1969]

Not sure if this is your issue, but when they "reset" the cable card, did they say that they sent a "hit" to it? I've had some channels stop working twice in the last year, and when they sent a "hit" to the card, it corrected the problem immediately.

[rbmorse]

Thank you for the suggestion. I asked Comcast to "hit" the card...there was a brief pause and the dweebette on the other end of the phone says, "OK" and indicates that I should wait 30 minutes or so for the card to repopulate. Sorry to report the problem persists, but it strikes me that perhaps I should try it again after I fix the signal strength issue. That will take a few days as I had to order an attenuator online.

[erkotz]

Do these channels ever work, or always fail? I would recommend removing the MoCA (all the MoCA devices in your house) just to test and confirm. Beyond that, I'd need to see a diagnostic capture with the problem to figure it out.

[rbmorse]

Both channels fail consistently now, but they worked fine up until a week or so ago. Both channels still work fine off the cable box on the TV in the other room.

To my ignorant eyes these lines from the diagnostic log seem to apply:

00094.206971: mpeg: cetonmpeg_get_pmt_with_pat_w_timeout:357 WARNING: Unable to find program number 29 in pat
00094.208221: ocur: cas_GetPatPmtAndPids:1977 ERROR: [1] No pat returned

Would this indicate that the cablecard is not properly provisioned or otherwise improperly "synced" with Comcast World Domination HQ...er, central control?

[rbmorse]

As of this morning, I can receive no channel at all. The only unusual item in the diagnostics in on the cable card tab where it reports "Cable card has not received channel list yet" after someone at Comcast suggested I clear the channel map so that could be reloaded. Except it can't.

We have a truck roll scheduled for tomorrow...the best guess is the cable card has failed and either isn't reading or processing OOB data correctly. The CETON diagnostic tool indicates a good OOB lock and that OOB messages are being received. We'll see.

[erkotz]

Both channels fail consistently now, but they worked fine up until a week or so ago. Both channels still work fine off the cable box on the TV in the other room.

To my ignorant eyes these lines from the diagnostic log seem to apply:

00094.206971: mpeg: cetonmpeg_get_pmt_with_pat_w_timeout:357 WARNING: Unable to find program number 29 in pat
00094.208221: ocur: cas_GetPatPmtAndPids:1977 ERROR: [1] No pat returned

Would this indicate that the cablecard is not properly provisioned or otherwise improperly "synced" with Comcast World Domination HQ...er, central control?

Unfortunately, there's not enough data there to say the cause of failure - it could be anything from a headend issue, to a CableCARD provisioning issue, to a signal issue, to a InfiniTV issue. You'd need to open a support ticket for us to look into it.

[rbmorse]

Comcast did their site visit this morning as promised and corrected the problem in short order. The tech disconnected the house at the terminal on the street and then ran a temporary cable directly into the Ceton card. The channel list populated immediately...and I mean immediately...and everything began working properly. After verifying all channels were present and accounted for he restored the normal connections, checked levels and the like, then went on his merry way.

I'm happy it's working, but for some reason I'm not sure it's fixed.