Hauppauge DCR-2650 - Day 1 - Moderately Successful

[mvallevand]

The only reason I am messing with WMC at all is due to the copy flags knowing that I will have use both programs if I want to record and view everything I want.

I'm still looking for guinea pigs to see if calling SageMCTuner from NPVR will allow you to schedule 7MC recordings if you are interested.

Martin

[BrettB]

I'm still looking for guinea pigs to see if calling SageMCTuner from NPVR will allow you to schedule 7MC recordings if you are interested.

While I have the premium channels that I can't record with NPVR, that would be cool to try. I'll give it a shot over the weekend. Do you have any specific instructions for setting it up? If not, I can probably piece it together from your other posts about the Sage interface and your Network Recorder plug-in.

[mvallevand]

While I have the premium channels that I can't record with NPVR, that would be cool to try. I'll give it a shot over the weekend. Do you have any specific instructions for setting it up? If not, I can probably piece it together from your other posts about the Sage interface and your Network Recorder plug-in.

Thanks Brett. Here's the as yet unannounced wiki link http://www.nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?...rkRecorder and the relevant links are on the page. You know how to find me for more info. I will help you remove the tuner when the time comes.

Martin

[soccerdad]

Hey Martin, I will give it a shot as well. With the three day weekend, I should finally get a chance to work through this stuff. Also, I have a brand new PC to assemble that I think I will use for a short period to do this development on. (then it will be my sons) I talked to Hauppauge today and verified that I can move the DCR-2650 to a differernt PC without any card pairing issues. Since I am fairly sure I will have lots of broadcast flags, I think the sageMCT may need to be part of my bag of tricks.

[wtg]

I too will give this a go. I really don't want to use WMC if I can help it. Still need it for playback but I'd rather do all my scheduling in NextPVR

[mvallevand]

Ok, great, when one of you get this going open a new thread for it. Remember that it's SageMCTuner not SageDCT (which is the alternative to sub's direct access which you guys don't need, it's mainly for Ceton cards now, until whurlston's plugin is ready).

Martin

[pcostanza]

I'll give it a whirl but I'll need to brush up on running from a command prompt. Been so long since I used my already poor skills.
Do want me to try with the Ceton or the ATI DCT that I have on another system?

[mvallevand]

I'll give it a whirl but I'll need to brush up on running from a command prompt. Been so long since I used my already poor skills.
Do want me to try with the Ceton or the ATI DCT that I have on another system?

Maybe wait for one of the others for command line tips. As for the device, I don't think it matters too much.

Martin

[roy]

Day 1 with my new DCR-2650 went fairly well. Installed and updated to the latest drivers and firmware. WMC worked to view all clearQAM channels. Installed the HDHomerun software so nPVR could find the tuners. Scanned and found all my comcast digital channels. Adding 127 individual xmltv channel mappings was straightforward, but tedious. Watched live tv and tuner would not stop streaming when stopped by nPVR. Updated to the latest nshared.dll provided by sub and this problem was resolved. I have now done several recordings, back to back, and all completed correctly (all clearQAM). So far, so good with nPVR. Outstanding work!

Then there is Comcast. I called to activate the cablecard. Be sure to call the number provided with the self install kit, where a real person will pick up right away for activation, not the number shown with the DCR-2650 or WMC which is just comcast central. I provided the SN, host ID and cablecard ID, he said to hold on, it may take about 10 minutes to activate. After about 12 minutes, he came back and said there is an error pairing the card. He gave me a ticket number, said it has been escalated, and that someone would call me back within 24 - 72 hours. Any bets on how long it will be?

So, now my new 2650 can see all the clearQAM channels, which I can already view with my 2250. Hopefully comcast can activate the cablecard quickly, so I can tune all the other digital channels I pay them for :p and play some more.

[BrettB]

Then there is Comcast. I called to activate the cablecard. Be sure to call the number provided with the self install kit, where a real person will pick up right away for activation, not the number shown with the DCR-2650 or WMC which is just comcast central. I provided the SN, host ID and cablecard ID, he said to hold on, it may take about 10 minutes to activate. After about 12 minutes, he came back and said there is an error pairing the card. He gave me a ticket number, said it has been escalated, and that someone would call me back within 24 - 72 hours. Any bets on how long it will be?

Roy, your situation with activation sounds just like mine. Did you go into the DCR-2650 management pages with a web browser? On my system, I go to http://192.168.140.209, but I'm not sure if the address is the same for everyone. (Can any of the others of you confirm what address you use?) If you go into those management pages, go to the Status Menu option. You can check there to see if the Card Activation shows as "Success"--I'm guessing no. Then go to the Log History option. Look for lines similar to:

Code:

20110901-13:03:44 CableCARD: authentication status: authentication in progress
20110901-13:03:53 CableCARD: authentication status: authentication success, activation needed
20110901-13:03:53 CableCARD: message: /get_cc_url?CableCARD///cp/auth
20110901-13:48:39 CableCARD: vchannel 301 (513MHz-801) access = unknown
20110901-13:49:26 CableCARD: vchannel 825 (573MHz-1) access = unknown
20110901-14:06:23 CableCARD: card indicated fatal error or firmware upgrade (ccio_detect:201)
20110901-14:06:23 CableCARD: technical error 0 (ccio_detect:202)
20110901-14:06:23 CableCARD: message: A technical problem is preventing you from receiving all the cable services at this time. Please call your cable operator and report error code 161-0 to have this problem resolved.
20110901-14:06:23 CableCARD: M-CARD reset
20110901-14:06:27 CableCARD: Motorola card (0000:0523)
20110901-14:06:27 CableCARD: authentication status: authentication in progress
20110901-14:06:27 CableCARD: authentication status: authentication success, activation needed

I ended up getting at least 2 of these firmware upgrades to the CableCard from Comcast in the process. And, it seems that each time they upgraded the firmware, it changed at least the Data ID which was used for the activation. So, after the final firmware upgrade, I had new codes that I had to give them. (You can get the current codes from the main menu, then the CableCard menu, then the CableCard Pairing menu.) Once the firmware upgrades were done and the codes had stabilized, they were able to get them put into their system, and then the card activated. The status on the management screen showed the activated status basically immediately.

So, if your codes have changed from the original ones you gave Comcast, (or even if you just aren't sure), you might want to call them back with the current values and have them try to activate it again.

- Brett