Cable signal issues and HDHR

[kevine]

I have another thread where I discussed the a signal issue I am having with my cable. I mentioned that I needed RG6 quad shield with compression fittings and it may solve my problems. Well, it hasn't. It worked initially and I thought it was the end of my problems but later it came back.

Here are my symtoms. I am using the HDHR signal meter detect a good signal strength and quality. Signal strength is 90+% consistently more like 95+ the majority of the time. Signal quality jumps around from 9x to 8x with the occassional 7x percentage. Symbol quality is where I can show it is related to my problem. It is either 100% or 0%. There is no in between. It jumps up and down. And when it does jump down, that is where I get stutter, drops and tearing.

Any thoughts?

My next thought is to see if I have a bad cable or tuner somewhere. Disconnect 1 cable at a time and see if it changes the meter. I doubt it is a bad cable because I have replaced them all.

[carlgar]

Are you sure that it is not the ethernet connection to the HDHR that may be dropping out? I have found the ethernet connection to the HDHR to have a lot of play. I now use rubber bands to hold the ethernet cable into the HDHR as far as it will go.

[kevine]

No, I am not sure at all. And after posting here I have been looking at troubleshooting document on the SD website. It states that packet loss might be causing it. I think the better explanation might be my network card and the settings. I will be checking them as well. I tend to think it it less likely that 2 HDHRs could be have the same problem if it were the network cables.

[m1abrams]

Have you submitted a trouble ticket with SiliconDust?

You could have a power supply issue. That is very similiar behavior to what I had with my HDHR. It is stupid easy to send a debug log to them. Also if you have a power supply that matches the specs of the one on the HDHR try it and see if that solves it.

Edit: just saw that you mentioned both of your HDHR are having the same issue. Still might be a powersupply problem. They had a pretty large batch of bad supplies.

[kevine]

I have not thought about the power supply but will keep it in mind. However, the same thought applies to this as the network cable. 2 units not working and causing the same problem? Unlikely. I am going to pursue what could be causing both to have the same problem first. They are server network card, signal/cable problem and software/driver problem. If I am missing something, let me know.

Just a side note, I have installed the latest firmware and software available yesterday with no luck there.

I have thought about a trouble ticket and will do that as soon as I get back to my server and run through their troubleshooting steps. For now, I have posted on their forum as well. I will probably get asked to submit the log. I have done this before.

Just so you know here is the troubleshooting document.
I have been following the Video corruption / video errors section and I pass check 1 and fail check 2 (symbol quality).

Thank you.

[kevine]

Originally Posted by m1abrams

They had a pretty large batch of bad supplies.

I did not know this. Now you have my curiosity peaked. Do you think their online diagnostic is capable of determining this to be the problem?

[m1abrams]

Originally Posted by kevine

I did not know this. Now you have my curiosity peaked. Do you think their online diagnostic is capable of determining this to be the problem?

Yes. I had a bad supply. I submitted a trouble ticket with a log. Within just a day or so they said they where shipping me a new power supply. No issues since then.

[Opus4]

BTW: they list the power supply details here, so you can check the power supply model you have.

- Andy

[kevine]

Originally Posted by Opus4

BTW: they list the power supply details here, so you can check the power supply model you have.

- Andy

I just noticed that, Andy. Thanks.

I have submitted a trouble ticket with log. I was able to connect remotely.

I will also check the power supplies when I get home. I really doubt this is the power supply. I bought both these units 5 months apart but you never no. I will let everyone know what I come up with.

[kevine]

Here is what I got from support:

This can be caused by a few different things...

1) What is the cable/splitter/amplifier layout in the house?
Amplifier - a bad amplifier can cause this symptom.
Unused splitter outputs - any unused outputs on splitters should be terminated.

2) If either or both units have a SW20-S050-15 power adapter please use this page to
request replacements:
http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/power

3) If the HDHR is close to an electrically noisy device then it may interfere with
reception. Try moving the HDHR 2' away from other devices to test.

I will run down the list and let you know what I find. I do not have another 1x8 amp to swap it out with but I will try to figure this out and report back. Also, I have the 2 HDHRs stacked. Seeing number 3, I read that as it could cause problems. Anyone else have 2 or more while stacking them?

[dvsing]

For what it's worth, I noticed my HDHR started having dropouts on one of the tuners... Silicon Dust has a very good troubleshooting/faq guide that you can get to on their forums.. very helpful.

I determined that the issue was probably a signal strength issue. There are three metrics that they measure: signal strength, signal quality, and symbol quality. There are also acceptable ranges for each of them depending on if you are on Cable or Antenna.

What I found is that my signal strength was borderline and it got worse at night. I'm not sure why it does but I'm pretty sure that was causing my problem. The signal quality and symbol quality were both acceptable but when the signal strength drops below a certain threshold the other two metrics go south quickly.

I took an RF distribution amplifier (1 in, 2 out) and replaced the passive splitter I had been using to split to tuner 0 and tuner 1. Problem solved. Signal strength is in the mid 90's now and I haven't had any more dropouts.

This is a situation where my setup *was* working just fine for a year before it started having trouble. They've been doing some work on the cable equipment out here, upgrading stuff, etc, and I suppose whatever they did bumped down my signal strength just enough where it started causing problems for the HDHR. All of my STBs are working fine with no amplification but I have noticed the HDHR is more sensitive to that type of stuff.

-Dan

[kevine]

OK. I finally found the problem. Nobody ever guessed this one. It is a bad tuner card. The HVR-1600 ATSC/QAM tuner is causing it both HDHRs to drop symbol quality. I tried different cables and ports within my 10 cable connections and none work well with the HVR-1600. I consider this a hardware or software issue on Hauppauges side. This really gets me angry too because I had to send back the first card to them defective. This is the replacement.

Now I have heard that the beta version of the 1600 drivers located here have solved many problems people were having. However, I have had so many problems with this card model that I did not want to try anything new. However, since it is still under warranty, I will try them this weekend as a last ditch effort before I send back yet another card. In the mean time, I have disabled it. I guess I will have to go this whole week with only 9 tuners.

BTW, I did have 1 bad power supply too but that is not causing any symbol drops. Ordered a new one.

Thank you for all you help.

[m1abrams]

Is the bad tuner card causing signal issues on the cable line that affect the HDHR? Or is it just a software issue on the PC?

[kevine]

I don't really know. I won't have time to fool around with this until the weekend. You see when you remove Hauppauge tuners, I have to remove everything for the PVR-500 and the ir blaster that I use so it it not as simple as upgrading the 1600.

I guess it could be the 1600 tuner having a "leak" like having a connector not terminated. More than likely it is software though.

Stay tuned...