Ceton InfiniTV 4 card issues

[denyart]

My MSO uses Motorola M-cards and no SDV.  My signal level on most channels is between -9dBmV and -2dBmV.  The OOB is Locked at 75.25MHz and the Out of Band MER is 33 db/10 according to the system page.  My newer Ceton seems to correspond with type 1 failures whre only a complete machine reboot brings it back.  My older card seems to be showing signs of type 2 where the card uptime resets and shows are only partial recordings.  Interestingly, I also have what appears to be an issue with tpye 4 failures as well.  It is not very many shows, but there are some (seemingly random) shows that will pop up subscription required messages once in a while.  This doesn’t seem like it causes the tuner or the recording to fail, and often if you skip past the part with the subscription required message you can watch the rest of the show without incident.

[johnw248]

-9 dBmV is just on the edge of being low, but only worth attacking if you see if happen on alot of the channels.

No SDV rules out TA communication errors.

With both type 1 and 2 failures the log file gets wiped and reset. With the Sub Req error where the recording continues there may be something in the log that will refer to getting a conditional access pmt and resetting and retuning. I don’t know why this is happening but since you see it on a Moto controller and I see it on a Cisco controller it points to a problem with the way the tuner is communicating with the cableCARD.

I would start a ticket with Ceton and if you find the card crashed, run a scan from the diagnostic tool even though it can’t find the card and then again after you reboot. If you have an uptime reset, do a diagnostic scan and file it and if you see the partial recording in the recorded tv history, you can check the log, run a scan and figure the time of the error by skipping through the recording to the Sub Req screen and checking that time against the recording start time.

Hopefully they’ll be able to pin this down soon.

John

[KHTPC75]

I’m having similar problems.  What’s I’ve been able to find is the upnp_ocur_server process is crashing and rebooting the ceton card.  What I haven’t been able to determine is why.

I believe it to be a ceton firmware issue.  They aren’t handling something properly in their code and it’s causing a segmentation fault and reboot.  What I notice in my logs is the cablecard reboots at the same time but I can’t tell if it’s the cablecard crashing and rebooting causing the ceton card card to crash and reboot or if it’s the ceton card crashing and rebooting so the cablecard reboots as well.

Have you been able to get any answers on this issue or have you been able to resolve the problem?

[johnw248]

Have you sent this information to Ceton? If not why not open a ticket and submit what you’ve found.

It would also  be interesting to know (for us here) the type of cableCARD, system operator, if you have SDV and type of Ceton tuner and FW and Driver (although I think there is only a single driver available now).

John

[KHTPC75]

I sure have.  Many months ago.  They finally said they hope to resolve it with a firmware update.  They ignore my requests for an update and instead answer me with questions that are unrelated to the crash and reboot of the ceton card.

I doubt they are even looking into it.   $399 + $32 shipping is way to much to pay for a product that still doesn’t work properly.

[alex409]

Is there any way you can describe how you and Mike resolved this issue?  I recently installed a ceton pci card and, after resetting it to factory settings, have been unable to locate the media device on my windows 7 machine.

[scottss]

I sold my infinitv 4 and got a hdhome run prime. I couldn’t be happier as far as tuners. The hd just works all the time and its over the network so any computer can use it. I even use my netbook and it does just fine.

[captain_video]

I’ve got two InfiniTV4’s, a HDHomeRun Prime, a dual tuner HDHomeRun (latest version), and two Hauppauge 2250’s configured for my primary PC.  The HDHomeRun and HDHR Prime are shared with other PCs on my network.  The InfiniTV4’s and Hauupauge tuners are all PCI-e versions installed in my HTPC.  They all work in harmony and I rarely have issues with any of them.  I got my first InfiniTV4 in the first production run back in August of 2010 and it’s worked beautifully from day 1.

The first thing I’d do is uninstall any unnecessary software that could be causing conflicts with the tuners.  Some AV programs can wreak havoc with WMC so uninstall any third party AV, malware, anti-spam, etc., programs and install Microsoft Security Essentials.  Get rid of Zone Alarm or other extraneous programs running in the background and just keep the apps essential to supporting your HTPC functions.  The cleaner the install, the fewer chances of problems.

Secondly, consider swapping out any unnecessary hardware that could have flaky drivers.  If you’re using USB tuners, consider replacing them with PCI-e versions.  The only time I ever had issues with tuners dropping off the grid was when I was using USB tuners.  I’ve never had the problem after switching to PCI-e and networked tuners.

The absolute best approach is to perform a fresh install from scratch and only install the hardware and software that you need.  Start of with a barebones configuration that allows you to perform the basic functions you need using WMC.  Create a backup before attempting any other hardware or software installations so you have a working configuration to fall back on without having to reinstall everything from scratch. 

I like to get a stable system and then clone the hard drive with something like EaseUS Disk Copy (freeware).  Keep the backup handy in case you need to copy it back to your working hard drive.  If you have issues after adding hardware or software, don’t even bother trying to fix it by uninstalling the offending item as sometimes things are left behind that don’t get scrubbed with a simple uninstall.  Instead, simply copy the backup over to the working drive and you’re up and running again in short order.

[captain_video]

Sorry, duplicate post.  Seems to happen every time I post from my office PC.

 

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