Suddenlyl only getting certain channels

[Beerman]

Came home from work and turned on the TV (Shield) and didn't get any live tv. I switched, randomly, to a few channels and do get some. I get all the locals but 1. They're mostly on the low end of the channel numbers so I went to the high end and get things like NFL TV, and I get a few in the middle, like Nick. I rebooted everything and had no changes so I went to the tv I never get to watch and the boss controls (Cox Contour which is a waste of money) and get all the channels. So I called Cox and they did send signals but they see me just fine and see no problems at all.
I've heard that before so I won't ask for a tech just yet.
So if I go to the Config GUI it shows 100% everything on the channels I cannot get but only for about 30 seconds. As soon as the channels die, everything goes back to zero. So i tried going for a workable channel to one that doesn't (which is almost all of them) and got this:

Recording: recording stated Live channel 1003 d1a81397
20210107-23:16:43 Playback: Streaming: Live channel 1003 to 192.168.1.114 starting at 0MB
20210107-23:17:22 Recording: stop Live channel 1003 d1a81397 (result = 0x0000)
20210107-23:17:22 Recording: early end of Live channel 1003 d1a81397
20210107-23:17:22 Recording: starting new file Live channel 1029 51e9a781
20210107-23:17:22 Recording: sending request to 1321770E at 192.168.1.70 for Live channel 1029 51e9a781
20210107-23:17:23 Recording: recording stated Live channel 1029 51e9a781
20210107-23:17:23 Playback: Streaming: Live channel 1029 to 192.168.1.114 starting at 0MB
20210107-23:17:32 Recording: stream from 1321770E timeout - retrying Live channel 1029 51e9a781
20210107-23:17:33 Recording: sending request to 1321770E at 192.168.1.70 for Live channel 1029 51e9a781
20210107-23:17:43 Recording: stream from 1321770E timeout - retrying Live channel 1029 51e9a781
20210107-23:17:44 Recording: stop Live channel 1029 51e9a781 (result = 0x0004)
20210107-23:17:44 Recording: early end of Live channel 1029 51e9a781
20210107-23:17:59 Status: Resource: nbk=0 dmk=374
20210107-23:17:59 Status: read: DiskMB=57 MB/s=1200 worst=1
20210107-23:17:59 Status: write: DiskMB=57 MB/s=151 worst=12
20210107-23:18:04 Recording: starting new file Live channel 1029 5ca5d0fb
20210107-23:18:04 Recording: sending request to 1321770E at 192.168.1.70 for Live channel 1029 5ca5d0fb
20210107-23:18:05 Recording: recording stated Live channel 1029 5ca5d0fb
20210107-23:18:05 Playback: Streaming: Live channel 1029 to 192.168.1.114 starting at 0MB

1003 is the working channel, 1029 is not.

Not sure it's related but a week or so ago I got some pixelation on a few channels but that didn't last long and things got better. I'm wondering if any line booster or tweak they put on ages ago is bad. I'm not sure what else to try. Any ideas?

[signcarver]

If they ever say anything about seeing it just fine, YELL AT THEM and say get me someone who knows something about CableCARDS as you (CSR) are not possibly EVER able to see anything as they are one way only devices. (I am kidding about yelling, try to be polite, but nothing irritates me more on a call to them more than saying that though I haven't had to deal with them with a cablecard install for a while as people weren't buying primes the past few years and they are used to streaming more).

Personally I would look at the TA as cox in most markets requires the TA for almost everything these days (Where I am the lineup for the regular cablecard map is almost completely incorrect)

I can't remember if you are in a cisco or moto area of cox. If cisco make sure the card says "Ready" and not "Not Staged" for it's status on the CA screen... also check the CP screen for CP Auth Received. Moto areas typically need to be re-paired and make sure the Data ID doesn't change if it does they must update such in their system without sending a hit that resets it again.

[Beerman]

Thanks for the reply. We're using Motorola TA's. I've rebooted a few times and they've sent a signal to restart them. It's just odd that some channels are pristine perfect all throughout and others are dead!

[Trewest]

Having the same issue. Been on with Cox tech support for a couple hours. No luck. There is an update through the HDHR SET UP APP. I am rescanning the channels now. Looks like a lot of the channels have DRM. Maybe its showing that cause the channels are not working? I'm not sure.

I'm still pretty new to HDHR.

[Beerman]

I'm not aware of any update here that they made that would affect me getting channels I've been getting but the 3 folks I spoke to are ignorant and I say that as a very ignorant tech person. If I know more than they do, I'm fracked!
I just went thru every channel I pay for and it's almost literally half the channels. Seriously, one guy told me he'd send someone out but it would cost me because it's not on their end. How does he know that if he's not been here yet?
Then, 90 minutes later my phone and internet went down for about 10 minutes but they told me there's no problems in my area. Many times this happens and I wake up the next day and things are fine and yes, there was an outage.
Sad the crappy service I get.

[Trewest]

Mine just started working again out of no where. Good luck man.

[Beerman]

Despite being told there are no outages in my area, the Down Detector website shows otherwise. I'll patiently wait.

[Trewest]

So the HDHR app is now working, but Plex isn't showing the channels listed as DRM. Hopefully they didn't add a bunch of new DRM channels for the new year

[Beerman]

Ahhhh, did a channel scan and all the channels I'm not getting are DRM'd! I've asked Cox when this will happen and they always say they know nothing about it. I just renewed another 1 year deal for TV, internet and phone (don't use the phone at all) in late December because I just knew this was going to happen and need the cable box for recording when it did. And it did and they still know nothing about this.
However, I thought Windows 10, Apple TV and the Shield could play live tv DRM but just not record it. Is that no longer the case and I missed that meeting? The very few DRM channels Cox did have, I was able to play until yesterday. What's new? I do meet and have met all the requirements.

[signcarver]

Double check the card is properly validated. It isn't uncommon on such changes that things get pushed out that mess up the pairing. You have been lucky to not have DRM as cox usually has DRM on "everything" but locals. If it is DRM protected, the scan does need to indicate such for any of SD's apps to tune. It can take up to 2 hours for the DVR to see it marked as DRM... clients "should" get such info by restarting but I believe they still try the DVR first until it says it can't because of DRM (I would have assumed the client would have been smart enough and not sure of it's current state but remember that the DVR had to be changed for such to work and that such change in the DVR prevented it from recording a DRM channel that could never be decrypted).

[Beerman]

Thanks again for your input. I checked both thru the HDHR GUI and Cox and all is paired fine. I left the 2 Primes and TA's unplugged for a few hours last night then woke this morning to run the channel scan and then left for work so tonite I'll see what has changed.
It pisses me off that they were so free to say, 'we'll send someone out but it's not on our side so you'll be charged for it'. Members of my extended family in the same city get this regularly too. And not once has Cox sent anyone to any family members home where it was not due to a Cox issue.

[Beerman]

signcarver, once again, you were right. A few hours after the channel scan, even with the DRM picked up by the scan, I can play these channels now. However, the 2nd Prime isn't doing so well. While the first picked up a total of 465 channels, even after 2 scans of the 2nd Prime, it's only picking up 84 total channels and none of them are DRM.

Now I just need (like many others here) Silicone to get DRM recording working.

[signcarver]

Can't really offer that much help for a Moto area... Cox switched the TAs in the cisco markets to DSG mode so they essentially now work the same as the STBs in how they request channels and ever since never had an issue with a scan.

For such a difference the two main things to check is TA and Card Validation... its been awhile since I have seen such issue but in the old days with Moto cards it was quite common for the packages to not be properly loaded to the card... I would also double check VCTID is the same between the two cards (some areas have multiple VCTID's to control channel lists presented and it picks the list for which your card is configured)... also on the low channel unit I might try without the TA just to see what, if anything changes.

[Trewest]

I am also not able to record DRM channels. Is it possible? Please let me know if you make any progress.

[signcarver]

Only thing that currently records drm protected channels would be wmc on win 7/8 which requires the same pc or extender to play... SD is working on recording DRM channels with but it may be quite some time before such is ready (see viewtopic.php?f=131&t=73199 ) Really no sense in asking about it as there won't be anything new stated other than that until it is available.

In case you were referring to something stated in my previous post, I should clarify thar a few years or so ago the dvr quite happily recorded anything scheduled despite DRM but such file from a drm protected source was useless as there was no way to decrypt it. Once the clients used DVR for live a change had to be made as it tried to play drm through the recording engine which didn't support drm. The change that fixed the clients' ability to play also prevented the engine from recording such useless file... since such required update of the DVR engine as well as client, it made sense that it needed the lineup stating those channels were DRM protected