johnw248

[johnw248]

This won’t work for Vista.  If you are intent on still using Vista you’ll have to find the BIOS slip loader trick to get the proper bios loaded and then you can manually add a PID for digital cableCARD use.  I don’t think the generic Win7 PID will work, but it is worth a try if you can’t find one of the old OEM PIDs from Sony/HP/Dell.

Then you’ll have an “iffy” cableCARD system.  Vista even with the video pak was no where near as stable as Win7.

 

You must have a reason for trying it on Vista, but aside from academics, it really isn’t a good way to go.  (Been there, done that with OEM Dell and ATI DCT).

[johnw248]

More complications. I was still “hit or miss” on my Dell machine and when I did a search on the system drive I found three copies of ehtray.exe. Two of them were in the winsxs/ folder with a very long folder name. But one of them was dated 2009 and the other dated 2010 which matched the one in ehome.

Throwing caution to the wind, I went through the dance to take ownership of the folder with the 2009 ehtray.exe and copied it to a backup folder and then deleted it from the winsxs/ folder.

Waiting results from the lab now. (After that operation I went through the stop process and then run as administrator from the ehome directory.) I’m just wondering if “sometimes” the 2009 copy got accessed or the fact there were two in the winsxs folder caused trouble or?

Time will tell…….

After stopping the ehtray.exe service and restarting as administrator and waiting for the next automatic update the notification pop-up appeared. It remains to be seen if this will work after a reboot.

[johnw248]

I’ve had mixed luck with the ehtray.exe end process and then running it from the ehome directory as administrator. BUT what I noticed today is that there are multiple instances of ehtray.exe running. It looks as if there is a copy for each extender which is logged on to the system. So as a test I ended process on the copy in task manager but there were three left in Resource Monitor. I logged out and back in and still found a couple of copies running. But I found that I could right click on the item in the CPU setting of resource monitor and choose end process. Then you have to wait for it to close. After they were closed I opened ehome and right clicked on ehtray.exe and chose run as administrator. After a few seconds it was added back to Task Manger and within a few more minutes I had a total of four copies running in Resource Monitor.

I’ve found the best method is to wait for the automatic update to run the task so I won’t know now until tomorrow if I get an icon with a pop up or if it still is “silent.”

 

Update 8/18 7AM, well the pop up is working (currently shows Client Mant. Complete) but turning off all the other “ehtray.exe” running and then starting one on the Dell as administrator and letting the machine restart the rest seems to have worked.

 

Still looking for a way to mark this service to start properly at boot up or start of Media Center to work properly all the time.

Anyone with more advice, please comment.

 

John

[johnw248]

A couple of things to consider. First is your cable provider–there is a great variance in the amount of content that is marked copy freely and that which is marked copy once. Copy Once can only be played on the machine that made the reocording or on a Windows Media Extender (right now that’s an XBox or a an ebay purchase of a Linksys DMA2100 or DMA2200 or a HP280n. By the end of the year Ceton will introduce a new extender with more features but that’s in the future.

With cableCARD all your recordings will be MPEG2 unlike you HD-PVR so they have compatibility with the extenders but a larger than your h.264 files.

The Ceton device has four tuners (either the internal PCIe card or external USB device) all current cableCARD tuners support switched digital video but you cannot get PPV or VOD. On the plus side you pay less for a cableCARD rental and you own the tuner. Most systems don’t charge for tuning adapters.  You won’t be able to use SageTV unless your cable provider does not copy protect content. Right now only Media Center has passed the DRM test with CableLabs to be able to record premium content like HBO/Showtime/Starz etc. If you’re on TWC that extends to everything except re-transmission of local OTA stations.

A short primer. For comparison the SD Prime on sale has three tuners, the Ceton with four tuners lists at $199 for either PCIe or USB versions. So at $50 per tuner, they are pretty close to the same cost.

John

[johnw248]

Signal level *should* be within +/- 7 dBmV although the standard is actually wider (+/- 10 dBmV) and a good SNR of 30 db with a higher number better.

I really think your efforts should point you to your video card. Channels which are “clear” (i.e. CCI 00) should come in fine. On TWC that is usually just the retransmission of the OTA channels like NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS and local indy channels. Things like Discovery, History, ESPN, etc are all marked 0x02 and require HDCP for display.

What video card are you using and what driver?

You can prove the HDCP issue by recording a channel you can’t watch and then playing it back on the computer with a VGA monitor. If that works then your problem is HDCP. If it doesn’t work then you might have a cableCARD authorization issue where your account isn’t properly placed on your card. If this is the case you’ll have all check marks and it still won’t work.

If you have a Cisco/SA cableCARD you can check the conditoinal access detail easily. Go to the Ceton Web Gui, Click on cableCARD and then open Conditional Access details in a new tab. If it’s proper you’ll see something like this:

Conditional Access Details

System Id: 0x0E00
Status: Ready
Internal Secure Micro Serial No:
02:06:00:71:7E:00
Secure Micro Software Ver:
3.14
CA Time:
Sun Jun 24 2012, 1:07:00 PM GMT
Time GBAM: 55374
App GBAM: 0
Purchase GBAM: 0
EMMs Processed: 8
 If you account isn’t on the card properly, instead of READY you might see NOT STAGED.

This is a problem you can have taken care of on the phone. If you’re having cableCARD issues, there is a 24/7 help line for TWC cableCARDs: 1-866-532-2598 and they have the power to pair and authorize cards. They might have to refer and issue where the account information is wrong or the hardware is on the account incorrectly.

Believe it or not, the order that the equipment is listed can determine whether it will work or not so if someone added something on to your account and it’s in the wrong place it won’t work.

Usually if this is the problem, you’ll only see the OTA retransmission channels and the normal error is “subscription required” for other channels.

[johnw248]

I wouldn’t re-install anything. If you feel that you need to reset Media Center, you can do it very easily. Just right click on Computer (if it’s on your desktop) and choose Manage, then open the little triangle next to Task Scheduler and open Taks Scheduler Library/Microsoft/Windows/Media Center and find the Media Center Recovery Task (its under the mcupdate entries). Highlight it and then choose RUN from the Action Menu. When you open Media Center it will be back to out of the box version and you’ll have to set it up. I’m not sure if you’ll have to run the Digital Cable Advisor again or not, but you’ll have to go through set-up for the tuner and all scheduled programs will be lost. Any protected recordings will still play.

But before you do that, what is your graphic card? Do you have the second display set up as an extended Desktop? One of those two should solve your problem and a new graphic card such as a GT430 nVidia isn’t very costly to solve your problems if it’s HDCP related.

Resetting Media Center will not solve a HDCP issue so make sure that’s cleared up first. Then if you have other problems, those can probably be worked out without resetting MC as well. Things are a little touchy when you’re dealing with CCI protection on cableCARD recordings since a protected path is required from the signal to the display.

John

[johnw248]

[quote=SJMaye] Everything should work, but when I click on most of the channels I get the error, “Display driver error. The video playback device does not support playback of protected content”

This is on a MC that was installed and working fine on Comcast and now, in Wisconsin, on Time Warner Cable I am getting this error.  Any ideas?

[/quote]

When you get the display error, go to the Ceton Web Gui and click on the tuner in use and look at the encryption. Almost everything on TWC is marked as copy once (unlike most other cable systems that have many “open” programs). Shows marked as copy once will not play unless there is a HDCP connection to the display. Depending on your graphic card, it may show you the HDCP status for your connection.

Also with content marked 0x02, it will not display if you have multiple displays connected to the computer and set-up as a cloned desktop. You must set it as an expanded desktop (the theory is the second display is actually a “copy”).

(When you click on the tuner in the Ceton web gui, if you see: Copy Control Information: “One Copy” (0x02), you must have a HDCP connection to the display or you must use an extender if your graphic card or cables don’t work for HDCP. Strangely you’ll be able to record the programs but not play them except as above through an extender or a graphic card supporting HDCP.)

[johnw248]

I got this to work today on the HP, instead of ending process, I went with End Process Tree, then right clicked the ehtray.exe and run as administrator. Then I went to the guide and right clicked on a channel and chose Update Guide Now. The pop up worked. This is the first time I’ve been able to do this on the HP Pavillion (I just installed the new Java7-5 64 bit and 32 bit before I did this, but don’t see how that should impact the operation.)

 

John

[johnw248]

I tried it on the Dell 9100 today after a reboot and had just the icon and no pop-up and it didn’t work. Sometimes on the Dell & HP a log out and log in will restore the pop-up. My theory is its something attached to the ehtray.exe service but I can’t find it.

[johnw248]

Wow! and interesting discovery and it worked on my Compaq lap top but it didn’t work on the HP lap top. Both the Desktop Dell & HP are working right now so the next time it fails on a reboot I’ll run through this routine.

Now the HP lap top has never displayed information, the Compaq would display and disappear so it will be interesting to see if it holds.

Did you try a reboot and see if it still worked? There doesn’t seem to be a way to assign ehtray.exe to run by default under administrator–or it isn’t an option under compatibility on my machines.

But thanks, its a great tip!!

[johnw248]

The saga continues. Now I normally get the pop up on the Dell, but the HP which was fairly consistent has not booted with the pop up for the last couple of months. Have no idea what might have changed to cause this.

Update: As of February 22, 2012 the pop up has stopped working on all my machines. I don’t know if it will magically restart but now none of them display the pop up.

 

[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

[johnw248]

For some reason the table doesn’t work when I post. It’s there when I edit and preview and goes to run on text when I save–sorry about that. It makes it hard to read but both the CCI and CGMS will be shown in the detail for that channel. The information is only available while that tuner is live and streaming.

Another try with data from a tuner in use:

Virtual Channel	422 MGMHD
Frequency	795.000 MHz
Program Number	1422
Authorization	subscribed
CCI Protection	protected-copyonce
CGMS Protection	n/a
Modulation Lock	qam256
PCR Lock	locked
Signal Strength	100% (6.9 dBmV)
Signal Quality	100% (37.4 dB)
Symbol Quality	100%
Streaming Rate	15.108 Mbps
Resource Lock	192.168.0.7

John

[johnw248]

On the Silicon Dust tuner, if you go to the Web Gui (double click on the tuner in Media Devices) and then click on the summary menu, you’ll see the cableCARD, Tuner0, Tuner1, Tuner2.

If you clilck on the tuner you’ll get the following information(this tuner in not in use at this time)

Tuner 2 Status

Virtual Channel	none
Frequency	none
Program Number	none
Authorization	none
CCI Protection	none—–CCI copy freely, copy once
CGMS Protection	none—-CGMS flags like on Modern Family week before last
Modulation Lock	none
PCR Lock	none
Signal Strength	none
Signal Quality	none
Symbol Quality	none
Streaming Rate	none
Resource Lock	none

[johnw248]

There are a couple of ways you can get this message:

1. The program is sent with a copy never CCI code of 0x3. This happens with video on demand such as HBO on demand and pay per view sporting events. You are unlikely to get this with a cableCARD tuner but the codes exist for this reason. There are times when this code can be send in error. This is a digital code and most likely would occur on premium channels.

2. You can also get this error if for some reason a CGMS-A code (from the analog days, remember?) that is copy never gets included in a digital stream. This is different than the CCI code and is in the MPEG stream. CableCARD tuners are required to honor this flag if it appears as part of the cableCARD spec. This happend about two weeks ago on ABC at the very end of Subugatroy and the begining of Modern Family. This code originated at ABC and wound up killing recordings on cableCARD tuners on many cable systems but not all. Some cable systems re-compress content and strip the codes out, clear QAM tuners don’t even see this stuff and so don’t pass it on to WMC.

What can you do? Complain. If it’s a cable system error, complain to them (in writing), make a complaint on the FCC website with date and time of the error and the cable system, channel, program, etc.

If it happens on a broadcast channel on a network show, it’s just wrong. It isn’t allowed and you should make a complaint to your local station, Network (I’d suggest the Vice President of Engineering–get the name off the internet) and for good measure file a complaint with the FCC.

I think in the case of ABC on Modern Family it was a mistake–heaven only knows what caused it, someone could have thrown a switch, a bad edit, something riding on the overlay video at the begining of the show, etc.

But in short, if it is either a CCI 0x3 or CGMS-A, don’t waste your time with your tuners, the fault isn’t on your machine or tuners, its inbound.

John

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