I got CableCard working today with Windows 7 Media Center. This is my first CableCard install. The install was not smooth, but it was successful. I'd heard a lot of horror stories about CableCard, but most of these stories were from two years or so ago. I expected the whole matter to be cleaned up by now. It has probably improved a lot, but I was surprised by how bumpy the ride was.

First of all, I really prepared for this. I upgraded to Windows 7 RC because I believed Win 7 RC would have better support for CableCard and my existing HDHomeRun than Vista had. I also have a DIY machine with the OCUR hack from EngadgetHD. I wouldn't have bothered with CableCard if I had to invest in a ridiculously costly $two grand in an authorized OEM CableCard-ready system, especially if the risk was more or less the same as with the OCUR hack (I knew the risk is in the cable service provider and in the CableCard, not so much in Windows or the PC hardware). I bought my CableCard reader from CannonPC.com and tried installing and using it CableCard-free first in Vista before I made the Win7 upgrade. VMC (and 7MC as well) walked me through the setup process of validating the CableCard tuner and allowed me to access SDTV content through ClearQAM on the device without the card. It worked fine. Then I upgraded to Win 7 and I tried to see what I could do without CableCard before I finally scheduled an install.

So when my technician arrived, I had the "Please insert your CableCard and retry" screen up and ready for him to just plug it in and go. Sadly, it didn't go that smoothly. He got down on his knees and pulled from his shirt pocket about five (5) CableCards!! He plugged one into the card reader, I hit Next with Retry selected, and it failed to see it. He pulled it out, put it at the bottom of his stack, and put the next one in. It saw it! I hit Next and then it said "Please contact your cable provider to activate the card using the numbers you will see on the next screen," or similar wording. I hit next and ... it couldn't find the number!! So we hit back, back again, to where it found the card, and he popped the card out, put the next one in the stack in. Again, 7MC recognized the card but couldn't extract the serial numbers. The last two cards he tried, MC couldn't even see them. So we went back to one of the two that MC saw. MC froze up. I used Task Manager to kill MC. We tried again. MC froze up again. I asked if he was patient enough for a system reboot. He shook his head. But I rebooted anyway, and he didn't leave. While we waited, though, he said that COX isn't really supposed to support the ATI reader--only TiVo's, other STBs, and TVs that have CableCard support. I asked him if he's ever seen an ATI reader work. He shook his head. I asked if he's seen them fail. He nodded. "How many?" He said about four. I think he was lying through his teeth and didn't want to do a CableCard install in general.

(I must also note at this point that COX technicians really, genuinely, deeply hate CableCards. This was the first visit to install CableCard, but the second visit from COX in the last couple weeks where the subject of CableCards came up. These guys acknowledge that the idea behind CableCard is a sound one, but the problem is that they are so different, and the devices are so different, that it's really hard to get a successful install. [I think Microsoft can relate to this sort of experience, being that their software works with most any white box PC on the planet.] Today's installer had a nauseous-looking frown on his face consistently from the moment he climbed the outer stairs to my door until the minute he walked out the door.. although, he had a slight skip in his step when he left. I'm not sure if that's because he was glad the torture was over or if it was because it wasn't another failure.)

Fortunately, the reboot was the ticket. With the card in place, the reboot let the dust settle somehow, and MC went straight to the card serial / PC ID pairing screen without a hiccup. He did something on his laptop (his screen was out of view) and we pulled up the CableCard reader diagnostics screen where he could see that the activation signals were coming through. "She [??] has to keep sending the signal. We need 45 signal hits. Most people are lucky to get 10." I had no idea what he was talking about. (I'd read that the card has to be called in so that an INIT signal can be sent, or somesuch, but I guess they're now using mobile Internet instead of chatting on the cell phone now.)  I fired up the MC Guide to go directly to the 700's (the HD channels on COX). We tried one of the expanded channels and got a big, black screen. After waiting a few seconds we got a message saying that the channel wasn't authorized. He did some more fiddling on his laptop and asked me to keep cycling through different channels, so I did. The channels would typically show up for about half a second, then freeze, then we'd get that message again. He said that this was typical if the card isn't going to work. He kept fiddling here and there on his computer but it seemed that he was probably just waiting, with unrelenting pessimism. Eventually, the channels started to work. I wanted to jump around and do cartwheels but I maintained my cool and acted bored. ;)

Then the channels stopped coming again and we got the message again and, well, we repeated the cycle once more, ending on a happy, "it seems to be working" note. He left with the box of a rented digital cable receiver I had used to validate the digital cable upgrade, and I sat down and smiled as I was now able to watch AE, USA, and SCIFI all in HD without that thing, with the beautiful MC interface. It works. :)

Thanks for sharing your story. Your post is nearly exactly like every CableCard related visit Cox has made to my house. I got sick of it all and decided to get a Hauppauge 1212 (HD-PVR) to connect to my HD STB. Sure, it's more $.. but I'd rather pay the cash than go through what you describe again. In fact, I'm going to get another  1212 in a few months. As for the point people make about only having to go through this once... my "pairing"? has gone out multiple times on the Tivo. I finally found a contact at one of their contractor units who gave me a # and said I could call them to reset things rather than the Cox main office.

Glad to hear you got it working. Congrats!

It really isn't as bad as most make it out to be.

 What kind of hardware are you running this on? Congrats on getting it working!

 Glad you got it working.  I've been through 3 different install cycles over the last few years starting with Comcast about 2.5 years ago.  My initial experience with Comcast was almost identical to what you describe.  I eventually switched to RCN and learned they had abandoned pairing so I had no such issues.

 About 6 months ago I switched back to Comcast (RCN kept raising rates on me) and the install went relatively smooth.  I now have 3 CableCard machines, 4 DCT's and 4 ClearQAM tuners.  Everything went great initially but one of the CableCards failed after a day or so.  Comcast had to send out someone to replace the bad CableCard (it apparently takes some sort of Certificate to put a card in a slot...), but since then everything has worked great.

 Hopefully this bodes well for all the new  DIY'ers who'll be teeing this up in the future.

 One other thought...  I was telling someone at work how great the 2x playback feature works in Windows 7, especially when trying to cram in the football game I had recorded into short available time window.  He was dutifully impressed.

Just a few notes on your install here :

Cable companies hate cablecards because they don't educate thier people enough in them and they don't make enough on them.  Truth be told if they can't get one working, most realize the list of things wrong.  This may be only a partial list, but:

• head-end people that don't understand the proper billing/account setup
• head end people that don't understand which hits to send
• the installer not knowing for sure what info to give and what info to look for for pairing (IE what does a screen look like once validated, and then, what should it look like when authenticated) ALONG with a headend person not sure what info to insert into the pairing screens
• bad cards that get cycled into the pool of cablecards, because no one knows if the card was bad or they just got a headend person that couldn't get it working

 they have mounted a pile of bad cards, bad installers into a pool of something that just continues to compound.  This isn't one company that has issues with this, it's all of them, because cable companies / cablelabs / motorola / scientific atlanta / all the players have not made the validation and authentication clear and educated the installers on what to look for.  Truth be told, many installs go without hitch, but just the same amount of horror stories can be said for Tivos and other cable card installers.   Disparing devices have NOTHING to do with the issues of cablecard if they are cable labs certified.   It's education and clear reporting in  the technology that make people grumble over it.  Any device that is cable labs cerified gives the same diagnostic screens for the cable cards, problem is just finding an installer that understands them.  An installer cannot ever tell what is bad, the card, or the process.  Now a cable box has a cablecard in it as well, BUT, it was previously 'paired' by the manufacturer so all the cable company does is send it a 'hit' (usualyl a different type of hit than what a cable card needs to get jumpstarted).

I could be wrong but the reboot probably had little to do with getting the install working.  MC has nothing to do with getting the cablecard to pair, it just regurgitates info from the http interface of the ATI cabletuner passing data from the cablecard.  A pairing is a one way thing, so once the headend sends the init, then the hit, it either pairs or not, depending if your serial number (availabe on the card physically) and the host ID and the data ID's are all correct and your hit is correct.  Sometimes a hit that finally authenticates the card may take a few minutes to 10-15 minutes to fully take (this depends on how many hits are in the queue and the amount of time it takes for the cablecard to initialize) and then it takes a little bit for MC to get all the channels populated, but again, more to do with the authentication of the card than MC.  Once your card says "Auth: Subscribed" you are "most likely" good to go, before that, don't even bother opening MC.

For anyone out there looking to do a cablecard install, check out the following:

The ATI interface gives easier accessibility to information than doing it through MC.  Back out of MC, go to 'Network' and click on the ATI Digital Cable Tuner from there.  (For more information on this, see the "CableCARD Troubleshooting" section starting with step 7 located here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediacenter/cablecard.mspx

Read this section (Step 4) for information about how the individual brands of cards report pairing.  I know this is a tivo link, but the information screens diagnostic data have the same information on tivo as they do on the ATI Cablecard device screens (because the diagnostics come from the cablecard, not the ATI Tuner)

http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/137/related/1/kw/cablecard%20pair/c/105/r_id/100041/sno/1#Step4DeterminingiftheCableCARDisactivated

The most important part of understanding whether you are paired is the conditional access screen.  This screen shows two factors, whether you are validated, and whether you are authenticated.  A card with a pertial hit will show 'Valid' while a card with a full hit, and usually at this point paired and working, will show "Auth, or Authorization: Subscribed".   Check the following links that show you this in more detail:

Motorola S-Card 

Motorola M-Card 

Scientific Atlanta S-Card 

Scientific Atlanta M-Card 

NDS S-Card

Some advice:

• Make sure you've stepped through the engaged article, including the testing of the ATI device, so you are sure the device is in proper working order. 
• Be super nice to your installer.  Don't act frustrated or act like you have a right to have this working.
• If he starts in about how it's a computer and not a supported device, tell him it's cable labs certified and by law the FCC mandates that the installer can get it working with your cable service.
• Never let the installer leave without all your channels showing up, or having the number of his supervisor to schedule a lead tech to take over the install if your tech cannot get it working.
• Keep the ball rolling during the install.  Don't let him get frustrated to the point of giving up unless he's tried 5 cards and a dozen different headend service reps, then make sure you've got the number for his supervisor as mentioned.
• Have the installer check the hit queue when they send the hit, so you know roughly when you should have gotten the hit.  have them resend hits every 5-10 minutes or so after that point
• if the hits don't take, it could be a bad card, encourage him to try another card, and start the cycle over again

I've kinda wrote this on the fly here so I'm probably leaving stuff out.  if there is enough intrest in this I'll build a thread to accumulate education on getting cablecards activated.  I know this is probably a bit scary to some that want to do a cablecard installation, so I will say this, I've had installs that have gone completely effortlessly and some that have taken two weeks with multiple installers.  Most of the drawn out installs are due to the factors I've written here.

 

hongkongphoey74:

Cable companies hate cablecards because they don't educate thier people enough in them and they don't make enough on them.  Truth be told if they can't get one working, most realize the list of things wrong.  This may be only a partial list, but:

The other reason that cable companies hate cable cards is they don't make as much money on them as renting you that super-duper HD DVR.

It's a sad day when I know more about setting up a cable card tuner than most of the techs who've come to my house. Cox has excuses out the whazoo and they have them all memorized.