# Premiere & tuning adapter woes



## dtrocchio (Nov 19, 2007)

Hello,

I've been digging around for a few days now and haven't come across a similar problem (or solution) so I figured I'd ask.

It appears that my new Premiere unit never gets past the 'Acquiring Channel Information' screen when connected to my tuning adapter.

Background:

I'm upgrading from a TiVo HD equipped with an M-Card and a Cisco STA1520 tuning adapter. When the tuning adapter is first plugged into the old TiVo HD, I would get the 'Acquiring Channel Information' screen for under a minute then I can resume watching television.

New Unit:

I've already had Time Warner out to install a new M-Card (SA) which went just fine, all of my non-switched digital channels come in great. I've got the latest system updates (14.1c) and all appears to be working fine.

Upon plugging in the tuning adapter (same adapter used with the HD unit, I did not receive a second) I receive the 'Acquiring Channel Information' screen, which never actually goes away. I can't watch any live television when the tuning adapter is plugged in period and I've left it on this screen for various durations ranging from a few minutes to a full day before pulling the plug so I can actually watch television.

Digging into the DVR diagnostics, nothing jumps out and in comparison with the diagnostics on the old HD unit everything is roughly the same. 

CableCARD 
Current Tuning Status:	Tuned: Success
Module State: Operating Normally
Module Mode: M-Mode
Channel List Received: Yes
OOB Signal Lock: Yes

Tuning Adapter:	Operational
Last Status:	Ready
Channel List Received: No (diagnostics on both units report this)

After disconnecting the tuning adapter and setting it up on the original HD unit, everything's back to normal. This is leading me to believe that the problem may be isolated with the Premiere. Since the tuning adapter is not hardware-paired like a cablecard is there should be no problem in respect to which unit it's connected to. I have gone through all the various combinations of powering everything off and back on, disconnecting and reconnecting cables to no avail.

I've had Time Warner send out several 'hits' to both cablecards and the tuning adapter, everything appears to come back online just fine. At this point I'm stuck and would rather not have to call another tech out to rearrange all my cables (they always do) and take off.

Thanks!


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## endobrian (Sep 18, 2006)

You need 2 cablecards. One for the old digital converter, and the M-card for the new tivo.


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## b_knits (Apr 20, 2010)

I was having the same type of problems. Finally today it's all working. The TW tech came (visit 2) and swapped out the tuning adapter. It took a week of phone calls and tearing my hair out to get it resolved.


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## dtrocchio (Nov 19, 2007)

endobrian said:


> You need 2 cablecards. One for the old digital converter, and the M-card for the new tivo.


I'm not sure I follow, to clarify my hardware inventory:

TiVo HD, 1 M-Card
Cisco STA1520 Tuning Adapter
TiVo Premiere XL, 1 M-Card

A cablecard is installed in each TiVo unit and I can confirm they're both working as I'm getting all my HD, non-switched channels on both units.

I'm attempting to hook the tuning adapter up to the new Premiere.

Thanks!


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## dtrocchio (Nov 19, 2007)

b_knits said:


> I was having the same type of problems. Finally today it's all working. The TW tech came (visit 2) and swapped out the tuning adapter. It took a week of phone calls and tearing my hair out to get it resolved.


I'm anticipating a similar solution as this tuning adapter has been nothing short of problematic over the time I've had it.

Thanks!


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## SCSIRAID (Feb 2, 2003)

dtrocchio said:


> Hello,
> 
> I've been digging around for a few days now and haven't come across a similar problem (or solution) so I figured I'd ask.
> 
> ...


Sounds like a USB issue. Try the TA in the 'other' USB connector and also try a different USB cable. If that doesnt solve it... then it may be a bad Premiere.


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

dtrocchio said:


> Since the tuning adapter is not hardware-paired like a cablecard


Are you sure about that? I only ask because I don't know but had my own issues migrating a CableCARD and TA - which required a few calls and a visit from the cable-co.


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## dtrocchio (Nov 19, 2007)

davezatz said:


> Are you sure about that? I only ask because I don't know but had my own issues migrating a CableCARD and TA - which required a few calls and a visit from the cable-co.


I'm confident that's the case. I've asked the tech on two occasions so take that for what it's worth. I'm going to run through guided setup and start afresh tonight, maybe something will take. I'm also going to try a different USB cable to eliminate that as a potential problem.


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## MikeTerryP (Mar 12, 2004)

This may be too simple to be effective, but is the green light on the Cisco solidly on before plugging in the USB cable? According to Cisco, that makes a difference.


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## dtrocchio (Nov 19, 2007)

MikeTerryP said:


> This may be too simple to be effective, but is the green light on the Cisco solidly on before plugging in the USB cable? According to Cisco, that makes a difference.


I've tried this as well, still no luck.

I finished running through guided setup two more times and used a different usb cable/port combination with the same results. As soon as the tuning adapter is plugged in (and powered on) the Premiere reports that it's 'Acquiring Channel Information' and never leaves this state.

Another attempt to use the tuning adapter with the old HD model was successful so it appears I've made no progress.

I did consider doing a full system reset but the warning that pops up says this process un-pairs any cable cards so I decided not to take that risk yet.

Thanks everyone for their input, I'll probably mess with it a bit more before throwing in the towel and calling Time Warner back out.


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## TiVoMargret (Feb 3, 2008)

If you have experienced an issue with your Tuning Adapter and your TiVo Premiere, please email my first name at tivo.com with the following information:
1. Your cable company
2. Your zip code
3. If it is working now, or not

Thanks!
--Margret


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## bbowen (Dec 4, 2007)

I just installed a Tuning Adapter with my Premiere.

The TAs green light kept blinking so I called TW and the guy did something on his end and it went to solid green.

I then had to read him the status of several screens on the TA. Everything checked out until we got to the:

SDV PROTOCOL STATISTICS section. The values after the various item there were supposed to be "non-zero", mine were all zeros.

So, they have to send a tech out to look at my signal levels, if that isn't the problem then TW opens a ticket and one of their engineers has to look at it.


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## bbowen (Dec 4, 2007)

Tech is here. Levels are good. More calls on his part. Now, they're saying the TA may be bad!!


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

I wonder if this too is a tactic by the cable companies to drive people (back) to their crappy DVRs: _knowingly_ provide bad equipment such as CableCARDs and Tuning Adapters. Coupled with indiscriminate CCI byte manipulation, I could see "less than robust" provided accessories as being quite a stumbling block for third party products like the TiVo. What happens to all those "bad" cableCARDs and Tuning Adapters reported? In my paranoid world, they're just returned to the pile of stock, and redeployed to the next sucker customer...


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## dtrocchio (Nov 19, 2007)

I'm going to give it another shot tonight. I decided to just start fresh, reset everything and call up TW and try to have them reactivate the cards. 

If nothing takes then I'll end up having them come back out, ugh. The sad part is that the only reason I didn't pick up a premiere sooner was because I knew I'd have to deal with TW. I put it off for a month and I'm exactly where I'd expect to be in the cycle....


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## jhirsche (Mar 2, 2009)

Margret,

I recently upgraded my Tivo HD XL to a Premiere XL. My cable service provider is Time Warner Cable of Central New York (twcny.com) - and since the upgrade, I/they have been unsuccessful at getting the same Scientific Atlanta M-card / Cisco STA-1520 tuning adapter combo that was working fine in my old HD XL Tivo to work with the new Tivo Premiere XL..

Time Warner has made several attempts to correct the problem with this installation, including "hitting" the M-card, swapping in a new M-card, hitting the tuning adapter, swapping out the tuning adapter for a new one, and even adjusting the signal frequency sent by the cable headend to the tuning adapter in service at my location (node?) All of these attempts have been unsuccessful ,and the problem is that when tuning to an SDV channel, there is a brief interval where the picture/sound tunes in for 2-3 seconds, then the picture freezes, sound is lost, then the screen goes blank and the Tivo gives a message that the signal on the channel was lost, and it is attempting to retune the channel.

AS requested, here the important stats you need to know:

1. Your cable company: Time Warner Cable of Central New York
2. Your zip code: 13167 West Monroe, NY
3. If it is working now, or not - SDV channels are NOT WORKING.

Thanks for a rapid resolution to this issue!

Jacob Hirschey


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## dtrocchio (Nov 19, 2007)

I decided to start fresh and clear & delete everything on both my HD and Premiere units. I've wanted to do this for some time anyway because my HD stopped recording suggestions months ago.

Anyway, I reset both and called up TW and got tossed around for a bit before landing on 3rd level cablecard support.

The tech on the line got both M-Cards activated however no matter what we did we always got stuck 'acquiring' - both units now!

If we pop the cards out, I get all the standard analog channels but when the card is in channels are never acquired.

*Then* the tech discovered that beginning around Saturday the 24th they have started to see this exact scenario become more prevalent. They've been trying to figure out why these boxes are timing out when getting channel information and he acknowledged it as* a problem with the headend* but nothing is known for sure yet.

Since my account is having these problems and I've got both a series 3 and series 4 box they're going to use my account as one of their troubleshooting 'test beds'. They're supposed to call at some point today with an update for me so it'll be interesting to see what they say.

For reference, I'm in TW's MidOhio region.


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## Macros_1 (Apr 23, 2010)

@dtrocchio - I'm in roughly the same boat. I've got TWC, the Tivo + M-Card work great now, no issues. Added the TA and I only get some channles. Most of the time the TA diagnostics say "Ready - B'cast Only" and I can get some local channels and a couple of other HD's (mostly the clearqam channels). I seem to get and drop the RF-IP on a regular basis. I'll get some channels all the time, some seem to come and go at will (BBCHD, CCHD), while others never come in. Two techs and multiple hours on the phone with support and they continually point at the Tivo as the issue. 

I've got another tech scheduled for today, hopefully something will change. All they seem to do is complain about Tivo. I wish you luck and will let you know if anything changes here.


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## jhirsche (Mar 2, 2009)

Guys, we ought to be asking TWC for a partial credit for the period where our service has been crippled by these issues... in the past, they've complied to my similar requests for credit due to problems with my service related to cablecards (and I'm not just talking about crediting the paltry monthly cablecard rental fee, rather the cost of a month's + digital service...)


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## bbowen (Dec 4, 2007)

Well the techs Ive had have placed the blame on Tivo, so I'd be real suprised to get a credit from TW. 

Maybe Tivo should be handy out credits?


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## bbowen (Dec 4, 2007)

Just called Tivo they say there is a known bug with the Cisco Tuning Adapters, they won't work with the Premiere!

So, now I need to figure out if Time Warner carries any other type of Tuning Adapter!!

Ugh!!


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## Macros_1 (Apr 23, 2010)

I had TWC out today and they replaced both my TA and M-Card. Everything _seems_ to be working now. According to the tech (yeah, each one seems to have a story), he had a meeting that morning and there is apparently a firmware issue with the TA's and cablecards. He said the new firmware should have been pushed out but they found a bug and the rollout was pushed back to August. I have no idea if this is true or not, but as of right now, for the first time since I got my Premiere.....everything is working!

No whine and all channels that I can tell. It's a good day. I wonder how long it will last.


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## bbowen (Dec 4, 2007)

Funny the TW tech that came today said that a customer out in Rouses Point, NY which is about an hour from me, knew the President at Time Warner. He relayed his problems with the whole system and now TW changed the protocol about how many CCs and TAs they have on hand.

I have to say that TW was very accommodating and got guys here at odd hours and everything. All the TW tech I dealt with (phone and in person) were pleasant and helpful.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

davezatz said:


> Are you sure about that? I only ask because I don't know but had my own issues migrating a CableCARD and TA - which required a few calls and a visit from the cable-co.


I think they are just activated like a regular cable box. I have Charter and they installed 4 TAs and they certainly didn't pair them up since they never checked which cablecards were which. I have also moved them around to different boxes with no issues. I don't think tuning adapters even have the ability to pair with a cablecard.


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## Johnwashere (Sep 17, 2005)

When I first got my TA (for my tivo HD) from Time Warner Columbus Ohio they had many many issues. Mine has been working very well the last few months. It was such a pain getting it becuase TW never could program them correctly. I would constanty get missing SDV channels and sometimes the channels would appear then just disappear. TW Columbus handled the tuning adapters pretty poorly. Im just glad mine works pretty well on my tivo hd now, so it scares me to move to premiere.


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## dtrocchio (Nov 19, 2007)

Johnwashere said:


> When I first got my TA (for my tivo HD) from Time Warner Columbus Ohio they had many many issues. Mine has been working very well the last few months. It was such a pain getting it becuase TW never could program them correctly. I would constanty get missing SDV channels and sometimes the channels would appear then just disappear. TW Columbus handled the tuning adapters pretty poorly. Im just glad mine works pretty well on my tivo hd now, so it scares me to move to premiere.


I feel your pain, several past months have been fairly stable with the TA but back in the september-november time my would kick offline once a week. I've got a tech coming out tonight to help diagnose this issue....


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## dtrocchio (Nov 19, 2007)

bbowen said:


> Funny the TW tech that came today said that a customer out in Rouses Point, NY which is about an hour from me, knew the President at Time Warner. He relayed his problems with the whole system and now TW changed the protocol about how many CCs and TAs they have on hand.


Yeah, the problem has been acknowledged now - which is great so there is something getting done. It might take a bit longer to track down but at least we're not crazy.



bbowen said:


> I have to say that TW was very accommodating and got guys here at odd hours and everything. All the TW tech I dealt with (phone and in person) were pleasant and helpful.


Agreed, my experiences have been good as well.


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## dtrocchio (Nov 19, 2007)

After a few days I'm happy to report success. Unfortunately however, I'm left with more questions than answers.

They sent a tech out on Thursday and we started the process of figuring out what was going on. All the diagnostics looked good, the headend looked good but something was clearly not working right.

They discovered that the tuning adapter I was using was fairly old and after swapping it out with a brand new one it all started to work. No one's quite sure why and my best guess is that given that the original tuning adapter was pretty old, it probably had an incompatible firmware.

I asked some specific questions about tuning adapter hoping to get some insight about what goes on in the little black box with one button and a single LED but it appears that not even the techs are brought into the shroud of secrecy. In fact, when I had one of the head guys from the cable card line on the phone I asked about a user manual and was met with 'it's proprietary technology, only Cisco knows'.

So at the end of the day, _I'm_ back up and working with little help for the rest. Quite frankly, If what I was told regarding Cisco is the truth then I should be pretty irritated with the amount of headaches I've had to endure within 6 months of _being forced to use_ their proprietary technology black box nightmare.


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## SCSIRAID (Feb 2, 2003)

dtrocchio said:


> After a few days I'm happy to report success. Unfortunately however, I'm left with more questions than answers.
> 
> They sent a tech out on Thursday and we started the process of figuring out what was going on. All the diagnostics looked good, the headend looked good but something was clearly not working right.
> 
> ...


What questions were you trying to get answered?


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## dtrocchio (Nov 19, 2007)

For the most part I (like many here) would prefer to be able to 'diagnose & fix' w/o having to make an appointment to get the tiniest thing accomplished. So I initially asked about a manual because I've looked online and haven't found much past a pdf showing a few pictures of the hardware and a hookup howto.

I was told there was no manual, then I asked about a list of codes in case something goes wrong I can better understand what '8 blinks then a pause' means exactly. Morse code? No-go there either. IMO if you're forcing consumers to have to use an extra box they should at the very least be able to identify when something is _wrong_ with it, but maybe that's just me.


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## SCSIRAID (Feb 2, 2003)

dtrocchio said:


> For the most part I (like many here) would prefer to be able to 'diagnose & fix' w/o having to make an appointment to get the tiniest thing accomplished. So I initially asked about a manual because I've looked online and haven't found much past a pdf showing a few pictures of the hardware and a hookup howto.
> 
> I was told there was no manual, then I asked about a list of codes in case something goes wrong I can better understand what '8 blinks then a pause' means exactly. Morse code? No-go there either. IMO if you're forcing consumers to have to use an extra box they should at the very least be able to identify when something is _wrong_ with it, but maybe that's just me.


Here is some info on blink code meanings...

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=425815


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

dtrocchio said:


> For the most part I (like many here) would prefer to be able to 'diagnose & fix' w/o having to make an appointment to get the tiniest thing accomplished. So I initially asked about a manual because I've looked online and haven't found much past a pdf showing a few pictures of the hardware and a hookup howto.
> 
> I was told there was no manual, then I asked about a list of codes in case something goes wrong I can better understand what '8 blinks then a pause' means exactly. Morse code? No-go there either. IMO if you're forcing consumers to have to use an extra box they should at the very least be able to identify when something is _wrong_ with it, but maybe that's just me.


The tech that installed my Tuning Adapter for my Series3 when I had cable said that they had a manual of sorts that they (BHN in Central Florida) put together themselves. The guy seemed pretty knowledgeable about the box, considering it had only been available for about a month (or less) in my area...


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## dberuta (Apr 16, 2010)

I'm having the "acquiring channels" screen problem here with Comcast in Washington, DC. When I called and asked about a tuning adapter, they said no such thing exists. What is going on here?


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## TishTash (Jan 24, 2008)

dtrocchio said:


> They discovered that the tuning adapter I was using was fairly old and after swapping it out with a brand new one it all started to work.


Well, I have the same situation: The TA works great with a TiVo HD, but the Premiere can't get past "Acquiring Channel Information." So I tried your fix, and obtained a newer TA.

Same thing: Stuck on Acquiring Channels. (Welp, I guess I can just use 'em with the HDs....)


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## ljcaswell (Oct 20, 2005)

My Cisco TA with Time Warner Rochester NY works perfectly with my Premiere, FWIW.

Didn't have to do anything different or special to get it working.


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## SCSIRAID (Feb 2, 2003)

TishTash said:


> Well, I have the same situation: The TA works great with a TiVo HD, but the Premiere can't get past "Acquiring Channel Information." So I tried your fix, and obtained a newer TA.
> 
> Same thing: Stuck on Acquiring Channels. (Welp, I guess I can just use 'em with the HDs....)


You might try another USB cable... double check RF cables.... I dont recall if you can get out of acquiring channels and go to TA Diags... You might try that and see what the three signal strengths and SNR's are in the TA diags menus.


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## TishTash (Jan 24, 2008)

The signals seem to be strong (85 or better), and switching RF and USB cables have resulted in the same thing: The TiVo HD tuner kicks in about a minute after hooking up the TA, whereas the TiVo Premiere is stuck at "Acquiring Channel Info."

One cable rep stated she had to wait about an hour for the map to kick in with another customer. No such luck with me; I'm guessing something serendipitously snapped into place with the other guy.

I'm going to try another TA when Cablevision comes a-calling this week; maybe the tech will have better luck, like dtrocchio's did. (Here's hoping [fingers crossed].)


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## SCSIRAID (Feb 2, 2003)

TishTash said:


> The signals seem to be strong (85 or better), and switching RF and USB cables have resulted in the same thing: The TiVo HD tuner kicks in about a minute after hooking up the TA, whereas the TiVo Premiere is stuck at "Acquiring Channel Info."
> 
> One cable rep stated she had to wait about an hour for the map to kick in with another customer. No such luck with me; I'm guessing something serendipitously snapped into place with the other guy.
> 
> I'm going to try another TA when Cablevision comes a-calling this week; maybe the tech will have better luck, like dtrocchio's did. (Here's hoping [fingers crossed].)


What is the LED on the front of the TA doing? Its a Cisco... right? I would suggest that you unplug the USB and turn everything off... Then power up TiVo and TA and wait for the light on the front of TA to go on solid and TiVo to be up and running and ready. Then plug in USB cable. If the TA light doesnt go on at all, hit the power switch on the TA and wait for light to be solid on and then plug in USB.


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## TishTash (Jan 24, 2008)

SCSIRAID said:


> What is the LED on the front of the TA doing? Its a Cisco... right? I would suggest that you unplug the USB and turn everything off... Then power up TiVo and TA and wait for the light on the front of TA to go on solid and TiVo to be up and running and ready. Then plug in USB cable. If the TA light doesnt go on at all, hit the power switch on the TA and wait for light to be solid on and then plug in USB.


TA is solid green; remember, it works great on the fly with any HD. It even worked with a Premiere I had to send back when the hard drive (apparently) broke down. I even tried different CableCards. The fact remains that the Premiere continues to be stuck at the channel map download. (Thanks for trying, though, I do appreciate it.)


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## TishTash (Jan 24, 2008)

Last Friday I received a voicemail from TiVo CR claiming they have isolated the issue, secondary to logs they downloaded from my affected TiVo Premiere. Apparently in certain combinations of Cablevision and Cisco TAs and TiVo Premieres, the channel map from CV does not transfer successfully to the Premiere via the TA. (For me, the TAs work fine with older TiVo HDs.)

I was told this is now a "priority" point of contention between CV and Cisco, with TiVo as the point man. Sometime in the (hopefully near) future, there should be a firmware update for the TA that addresses and fixes this "Acquiring Ch Info" hang. I was instructed to just notify Cablevision that I'm one of those who has this issue and requires priority download of these updates. 

So at long last there is some progress and (to some relief) actual official acknowledgement of the Premiere/Cisco/Cablevision "Acq Ch Info" hang. I'll keep y'all posted on updates as they come.


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## TishTash (Jan 24, 2008)

For whatever reason, the latest software updates for both Premieres and HDs, plus whatever firmware updates for Cisco TAs under Cablevision, have resulted in correct channel mapping and no TA reboots for over a month.

The mystery continues ...


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