Questions about migrating to a Cable Card setup

[crarbo1]

Hello,
I have Comcast cable and even though they haven't migrated in my area yet to all digital, I know it is coming. So, with the Ceton Cable card tuner being more affordable, I have ordered one to migrate my current SageTV server over to a Cable Card setup.

The reason I'm posting is I was wondering what things to I need to do before the Cable guy comes. I have the Ceton card but have yet to install it on my server and have not set up a cable guy to install the cable card yet.

Can I install the Ceton card now? If so, what can I do with it without an actual cable card installed?
What do I have to do with Windows Media Center 7 to make it work there?
Is there any thing that I can do before hand with SageDCT, SageTV, etc?

I would like to do the Ceton card install this weekend since we don't have much recording this weekend so any help is appreciated.

Also, I have a Scientific Atlantic Explorer 2200 digital cable box, without a cable card and can access the diagnostics menu. Can I determine if the channels I subscribe to are copy freely on a none-cable card device?

My server specs are in my signature if necessary.

Thanks,
Chuck

[ThePaladinTech]

Yes you can install the ceton card now. And the Ceton Drivers, and I am pretty sure you can even install SageDCT now (you just can't finish it's setup now)

What can you do with it without the Cable card installed? nothing- I mean short of getting ready for it's installation.

SageDCT doesn't need media center at all.

Yes you can determine the channels that are copy freely, it's a bit of a pain, you go to the channel you want to check out, then enter service mode and see if it's copy freely. then exit service mode, change channel, go in service mode, see if THAT channel is copy freely. repeat repeat repeat.

So before the cable guy comes, you can:
Verify the channels you will be able to record
install the ceton card
install the ceton drivers
install SageDCT

But until the Cable card is installed and paired through the Ceton Drivers the SageDCT cannot be configured, and it won't show up as a tuner in SageTV

[crarbo1]

ThePaladinTech,
Thanks very much for that information. It does help. One thing about determining which channels are copy freely on my set top box, what am I looking for? I can get to what you refer to as the service mode but it has 25 pages and I don't know what I'm looking for. If you could help for that piece, it would be great.

Also, I see you have HVR-2250 capture devices as well. I currently use them to only capture my analog channels and was planning on still using them for that until Comcast cuts off those at some point. Have you had any issues having one or more of those in your SageTV server with the Ceton card?

Thanks again,
Chuck

Originally Posted by ThePaladinTech

Yes you can install the ceton card now. And the Ceton Drivers, and I am pretty sure you can even install SageDCT now (you just can't finish it's setup now)

What can you do with it without the Cable card installed? nothing- I mean short of getting ready for it's installation.

SageDCT doesn't need media center at all.

Yes you can determine the channels that are copy freely, it's a bit of a pain, you go to the channel you want to check out, then enter service mode and see if it's copy freely. then exit service mode, change channel, go in service mode, see if THAT channel is copy freely. repeat repeat repeat.

So before the cable guy comes, you can:
Verify the channels you will be able to record
install the ceton card
install the ceton drivers
install SageDCT

But until the Cable card is installed and paired through the Ceton Drivers the SageDCT cannot be configured, and it won't show up as a tuner in SageTV

[ThePaladinTech]

I'm not going to be much use here

I had to remove the 2250 to put in the Ceton. (I've got two sage servers .. one at home and one up north)

As for what you are looking for, I got rid of the cable box too (the HD-pvr is now in storage) ... I am pretty sure you are looking for a screen that has a bunch of things listed and i think it was labeled CC1 or CCS?

[crarbo1]

Thanks for the reply,
I guess I will find out how well those two cards play together. Comcast in my area still has a few analog only channels, so I need to keep at least one of the 2250's for those.
I will take a look at the screens to see if I see any like that.

Thanks for your help,
Chuck

Originally Posted by ThePaladinTech

I'm not going to be much use here

I had to remove the 2250 to put in the Ceton. (I've got two sage servers .. one at home and one up north)

As for what you are looking for, I got rid of the cable box too (the HD-pvr is now in storage) ... I am pretty sure you are looking for a screen that has a bunch of things listed and i think it was labeled CC1 or CCS?

[videolog]

I plan on going this route as well. I am waiting until next week on the cable card. As of Aug 1st cable cards thru Comcast will be available for self install. (aka no install charge)

[crarbo1]

I plan on waiting until then to call for one but I'm not sure if the self install kits will be available everywhere or not. I just called the general support late last week and they didn't know when it would happen and I went to my local comcast and they had no clue about that even going to happen. So, I'm not holding my breath on the self install kits being available next week. I'm not so much concerned about the cost with the technician install but the time. I have to take off work just to be at home so the tech can show up late and all he does is watch me install it, and get to the right screens so he can call and tell the person on the other end the same thing I could. I just don't want to have to do it on their timetable. However, I'm getting impatient waiting until next week to call, just to find out they still have no clue.

Good luck to you getting the self install kits early next week.

Chuck

[UgaData]

What can you do before the cablecard is installed?

You can install the Infintv in your computer.
You can install the Ceton software and upgrade the firmware.
You can install SageDCT and configure SageTV
----This includes clicking the button (I forget the label) that
---- creates a text file for you to copy and paste into the
---- Sage.Propeties files for the mmc\encoders section.
---- You can setup the EPG guide for the tuners.
---------I actually tried to tune channels without the cablecard (ClearQAM)
---------but I was unable to tune anything in.

About the only thing you can't do is actually tune a channel.
And as previously mentioned when using SageDCT Window Media Center is not needed for anything.

The cable guy was at my house for about 30 minutes. IIRC, within the first ten minutes I was tuning a channel in SageTV. The pairing took most of the first ten minutes. (YMMV with the time it takes to pair the cablecard to the Ceton).
Once the pairing was complete I started SageTV and tuned a channel that only the Ceton could tune (I set that up ahead of time for testing).
The remainder of the time was spent doing additional testing of other channels and making sure it was the Ceton Infinitv tuner doing the tuning, before the cable guy left.

[crarbo1]

UgaData,
Thanks for that info. I will most likely do this over this weekend in hopes that Comcast will have self install kits available next week. If they don't, I'm not sure if I will wait or just bite the bullet and have a tech come out to install the cable card.

Thanks again,
Chuck

Originally Posted by UgaData

What can you do before the cablecard is installed?

You can install the Infintv in your computer.
You can install the Ceton software and upgrade the firmware.
You can install SageDCT and configure SageTV
----This includes clicking the button (I forget the label) that
---- creates a text file for you to copy and paste into the
---- Sage.Propeties files for the mmc\encoders section.
---- You can setup the EPG guide for the tuners.
---------I actually tried to tune channels without the cablecard (ClearQAM)
---------but I was unable to tune anything in.

About the only thing you can't do is actually tune a channel.
And as previously mentioned when using SageDCT Window Media Center is not needed for anything.

The cable guy was at my house for about 30 minutes. IIRC, within the first ten minutes I was tuning a channel in SageTV. The pairing took most of the first ten minutes. (YMMV with the time it takes to pair the cablecard to the Ceton).
Once the pairing was complete I started SageTV and tuned a channel that only the Ceton could tune (I set that up ahead of time for testing).
The remainder of the time was spent doing additional testing of other channels and making sure it was the Ceton Infinitv tuner doing the tuning, before the cable guy left.

[FreshOne]

Originally Posted by videolog

I plan on going this route as well. I am waiting until next week on the cable card. As of Aug 1st cable cards thru Comcast will be available for self install. (aka no install charge)

Same thing here. Got a smoking deal on the Ceton and am waiting on Aug 1 to be able to to do a FREE self-install....

[crarbo1]

I have an update. I waited until today to drop by my local Comcast office in Harrisonburg, VA to see if they had the self install kits yet. The good news is that they did. However I have some bad news. It seems that my card is defective. The people (3 people from 2 phone calls) said that everything looked good on their end but on my end the Ceton Diagnostics show that step 3: OOB is not locked and thus step 4, 6, 7 and 8 are also "red". The only thing the 2nd tier person said would be to send out a cable person to try another card. Fortunately that can be tomorrow so I don't have to miss work to be here.

Has anyone seen this issue before and if so, what was the problem?

Thanks,
Chuck

[src666]

Originally Posted by crarbo1

I have an update. I waited until today to drop by my local Comcast office in Harrisonburg, VA to see if they had the self install kits yet. The good news is that they did. However I have some bad news. It seems that my card is defective. The people (3 people from 2 phone calls) said that everything looked good on their end but on my end the Ceton Diagnostics show that step 3: OOB is not locked and thus step 4, 6, 7 and 8 are also "red". The only thing the 2nd tier person said would be to send out a cable person to try another card. Fortunately that can be tomorrow so I don't have to miss work to be here.

Has anyone seen this issue before and if so, what was the problem?

Thanks,
Chuck

It took 3 or 4 different cards from Comcast before we got one that worked. Either QC on the cards is really lousy, or Comcast keeps sending out defective cards in hopes they will eventually work.

[Kirby]

Sorry to tag on to this thread, but a question about the Ceton firmwares.. I recall reading in the past that all you Ceton users had to get access to a special Beta firmware to get it to work. Is this still the case?

[crarbo1]

Kirby,
I didn't have to get any special beta firmware to work. I did upgrade, but it wasn't beta. All is going well with my setup now that I got a working cable card.

Originally Posted by Kirby

Sorry to tag on to this thread, but a question about the Ceton firmwares.. I recall reading in the past that all you Ceton users had to get access to a special Beta firmware to get it to work. Is this still the case?