Comcast Host ID - Centon InfiniTV 4 & WHS2011?

[KarylFStein]

I traded in my STB for a CableCard Friday and today tried to activate it. Comcast wants a Host ID. They kept telling me to get it from WMC, but WHS doesn't have that. I don't see anything in the Ceton diagnostic tool that looks like host ID. Where do I get this?

[KarylFStein]

OK, some progress. I found that I could browse to http://192.168.200.1/ on my WHS server and access the Ceton based on this link: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Ceton_InfiniTV_4. (The Ceton shows up as a network adaptor in the control panel and can get the IP info there.) But when I go to CableCard > CableCard Pairings as described, I get "Information is not available." Also, the Ceton diagnostic tool says "InfiniTV is not communicating properly" in the devices tab...not sure if that's related, though.

[KarylFStein]

Ceton support replied quickly saying it looks like a bad cable card *sigh*. At least no one has seemed to notice that only OTA is working right now--except I had to watch last night's Longmire on the small screen...

[Naylia]

I can access this information on the CableCARD tab of the Ceton InfiniTV Diagnostic tool that gets installed.

Step 5: To Pair Your Cable Card Call Your Cable Company with this Info - and then it provides CableCARD ID, Host ID, Data, and Serial

[KarylFStein]

Problem is the Host ID isn't showing up even in the diagnostic tool. Ceton support says the diagnostic tool only works properly on Win7 (?). I have an unused Win7 license from a family pack and hard drives to spare, so I guess I'll put Win7 on the server sometime and go from there--I want all the other hardware to be the same just in case that has something to do with it.

Is anyone using an InfiniTV 4 PCIe card with WHS2011?

[mechling-burgh]

You can install windows 7 and I believe run it it for 30 days without activating it. You could test it and be able to save the license for future use else where.

[KarylFStein]

I installed Win7, (after installing Vista since it was an upgrade version), and still no luck. But I was able to capture the diagnostic file and send to Ceton. They said there was some corruption that looked like a hardware issue and are replacing the card. I guess I shouldn't have turned in the STB until I was sure this was working! Oh, well, we're not watching much TV over the summer anyway.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

I installed Win7, (after installing Vista since it was an upgrade version)

fyi, the upgrade version of Windows 7 can do clean installs on a freshly formatted hard drive (or you can have Windows 7 format the hard drive during the early stages of installation). No need to install Vista first, save yourself the additional half hour install time...

[KarylFStein]

Well, a few weeks ago I installed an SSD on my personal desktop and tried a clean install from my Win7 Professional Upgrade media. It wouldn't take my key until I first installed my old XP Pro version. I was able to format the disk during the initial install configuration, but XP still had to be on there. Maybe the Professional upgrade is different than the home premium one, but I figured I wouldn't risk it...

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

Well, a few weeks ago I installed an SSD on my personal desktop and tried a clean install from my Win7 Professional Upgrade media. It wouldn't take my key until I first installed my old XP Pro version. I was able to format the disk during the initial install configuration, but XP still had to be on there. Maybe the Professional upgrade is different than the home premium one, but I figured I wouldn't risk it...

I don't enter the key during the install process, I wait until after it is successfully installed (sometimes days or weeks after installation). I've never had it ask for any proof of an old O/S, granted I am not using Win 7 Pro. However, I don't think it would be any different, as the installation disks are almost identical for all versions of Windows 7.

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

Well, a few weeks ago I installed an SSD on my personal desktop and tried a clean install from my Win7 Professional Upgrade media. It wouldn't take my key until I first installed my old XP Pro version. I was able to format the disk during the initial install configuration, but XP still had to be on there. Maybe the Professional upgrade is different than the home premium one, but I figured I wouldn't risk it...

Someplace buried in the Windows Knowledgebase there are instructions for doing a clean install with the upgrade version. The first time it asks for the key just bypass it and it will continue to install. Then do a second install (yes, from the same disk). Since it now sees windows on the drive it will take your key or you can bypass it again and activate it at a later date (recommended). This way you don't have any orphan XP or Vista files. And don't forget to image the disk at this point.

Wayne

[Naylia]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

I guess I shouldn't have turned in the STB until I was sure this was working!

This is a good lesson for everyone if you want to keep WAF high. I ran my HD-PVR side-by-side with the CableCARD for the first week to make sure things were stable before turning in my STB.

[KarylFStein]

Well, I received a replacement InfiniTV card, plugged it in, and everything worked this time, (at least the activation part, getting the various IDs needed, etc.) It's still downloading the channel list and then hopefully smooth sailing setting it up in SageTV .

[KarylFStein]

Well, the good news is the tuner's working fine now, (fairly quick channel changes and no STB HUD). The bad news is it seems my old STB was programmed wrong, (or grandfathered in a plan as I refused to upgrade to digital and they finally just sent me a box). So I lost about half my channels and the next plan up that gets me back to what I'm used to is "digital starter"--at $50/mo more after their 6-month
"special"! That'll teach me to tinker... Guess it's time to really compare costs with the big D*s.

[KarylFStein]

Well, I broke down and went with the "Digital Starter" package. I'd say that everything is great, but now my Hauppauge 2250 is totally non-functional, (it worked fine when the bad InfiniTV card was in, but can't tune much of anything OTA today--no other changes except swapping the bad InfiniTV card). Plus Placeshifter on my laptop doesn't work for HD recordings, (it did before even for 1080i OTA captures). SD works fine, though. I can play 1080i recordings on my desktop via Placeshifter, but I can't skip except for 10 seconds forward--even if I try to skip backward!

At least everything, (including skipping forward and back in chunks--the former pretty important for automatic comskip), works on the HD300. And SD channels look better with CableCard. Even though the new cable package seems to have an HD version of every channel we tend to watch, I'd still like to capture locals via OTA because 1) they don't tend to repeat airings, and 2) Comcast isn't exactly reliable around here.

One step forward and a few more back. At this rate I figure any day Comcast will drop this "copy freely" bit I've heard about and it'll be back to square one .