Reinstall of Win7 = CableCard not working?

[pbrigido]

Greetings all,

Yesterday I had to reinstall windows 7 64 bit on my computer that has the InfinityTV4 installed in it with a TW cable card. For the last 2 years, it has been working near flawlessly. Since the reinstall, it seems as though my cablecard will no longer work with my system. It isn't able to be validated according to the Ceton Diagnostic screen. Nothing has changed hardware or wiring wise, and the TW person I was talking to said that the signal wasn't getting to the cable card correctly.

So, I'm out of ideas. I thought a reinstall would be smooth, but I guess it didn't work out that way. Any ideas out there?

Thanks much,

[barnabas1969]

The CableCARD is a device with one-way communication. It cannot be remotely diagnosed by your cable company. There is no way that they can know, remotely, that the cable card isn't getting signal.

Call them back and ask them to "send a hit" to your cable card. I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a try.

[erkotz]

CableCARD validation has nothing to do with the OS - I would recommend calling TWC and asking them to pair it.

[pbrigido]

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll be dropping them a call tomorrow. I wish TW had a dedicated number to call that takes you to someone who knows all about Ceton products.

here is a screenshot just to show.

Thanks again.

[Crash2009]

I wish TW had a dedicated number

http://cetoncorp.com/infinitv_support/c ... ctivation/

[pbrigido]

Wow, ask and you shall receive! Thanks Crash, I'll be calling them ASAP.

[barnabas1969]

That's good info on Ceton's site. It doesn't mention Brighthouse Networks. With Brighthouse Networks, call their usual 800 number, and ask for the "PRT team".

[blueiedgod]

I'll ask the dumb question. Has Digital Cable Advisor been run? Has PlayReady been updated?

[pbrigido]

lol no worries.

Yes, both have been run.

[erkotz]

I'll ask the dumb question. Has Digital Cable Advisor been run? Has PlayReady been updated?

These (or anything on the PC at all) have nothing to do with CableCARD pairing (not saying they won't cause other issues, just won't affect pairing)

[Dkeyguy1]

Don't forget the basics......
Remove cablecard from tuner and (carefully) re-insert. At one point I had changed nothing on my system and had to do this to resolve this issue.
Unknown reason (mechanical) caused bad connection to wreak havoc; has not happened since.

[pbrigido]

Thanks Dkeyguy. Fortunately I was able to talk with TW and they got it squared away. I didn't really figure out why after a reinstall I encountered these problems, they were fairly vague on the subject. But knowing myself, I'll definitely take your suggestion...if something like that can happen, it will definitely happen to me.

Also, I suppose a side question I need to ask. I had my previous recordings on a separate HD. I was surprised to find out that the protected recordings would not play back after the install. What info does a protected recording look to in order to see if it is legal to be played back? I was assuming it was the CableCard itself, but I know for sure.

Thanks again to all who have helped!

[foxwood]

Also, I suppose a side question I need to ask. I had my previous recordings on a separate HD. I was surprised to find out that the protected recordings would not play back after the install. What info does a protected recording look to in order to see if it is legal to be played back? I was assuming it was the CableCard itself, but I know for sure.

Nope, the PlayReady DRM makes those decisions by verifying that playback is occurrring on the same machine that the recording was made on. That information is stored in the PlayReady database, not in the WTV files themselves, so if you did a clean install, the PlayReady database is gone. (In very simple terms, PlayReady takes a fingerprint of the WTV file when the recording is made. When WMC goes to play back a Protected file, it checks the fingerprint in the WTV file, and asks PlayReady whether that fingerprint matches one in the PlayReady database. If it's there, WMC plays the file, if it's not, PlayReady says no, and WMC won't play the file. If you re-install Windows7, or try to restore a system image on a different machine, PlayReady re-initializes it's databases, and throws all those fingerprints away).

You can play back protected recordings even after you uninstall the tuner, as long as the PlayReady Database doesn't change.