# Stuck on "Acquiring Channel Information"?



## hospadam (Oct 14, 2006)

It seems I'm having a problem and it's driving me absolutely bonkers. I just got a new Tivo, and I'm stuck on the Acquiring Channel Information screen at 75%. I've gone through two cable cards, and finally a Charter tech came out today to try and help. He finally got everything hooked up correctly - and got a "hit" on the card and tuning adapter. He said that on the Charter side of things, the cards appeared to take the hit. 

I'm still stuck on this screen.

I've totally erased my Tivo and started guided setup again... and I've still got this screen. 

Any ideas? Or any info I can provide that might help resolve my problem?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

I would recommend disconnecting the Tuning Adapter and re-starting TiVo to see if the cablecard is able to acquire channels. If that works then try connecting Tuning Adapter.
(When Tuning Adapter is connected it takes over the channel mapping, but without it the CableCard takes that responsibility).


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## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

Try connecting the coax cable directly to the TiVo. 
Disconnect the tuning adapter from TiVo, too.


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## hospadam (Oct 14, 2006)

I unplugged the Tuning Adapter and Removed the USB cable. I then rebooted the Tivo (with the CableCard plugged in). When it restarted - it's still stuck on 75%. 

I can access the CableCard and Tuning menus - is there something in there I can look at to figure out what is going on?


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## hospadam (Oct 14, 2006)

Also - if I unplug the coax from the Tivo and Tuning adapter - and restart the box - it still jumps up to 75% and then hangs...

Is there a way to restart the process or something?


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

hospadam said:


> I unplugged the Tuning Adapter and Removed the USB cable. I then rebooted the Tivo (with the CableCard plugged in). When it restarted - it's still stuck on 75%.
> 
> I can access the CableCard and Tuning menus - is there something in there I can look at to figure out what is going on?


Is this a Motorola or Cisco TA?

If Cisco see Signature below


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

hospadam said:


> Also - if I unplug the coax from the Tivo and Tuning adapter - and restart the box - it still jumps up to 75% and then hangs...
> 
> Is there a way to restart the process or something?


A friend had this exact problem, the cable had come out from the wall under the TiVo, I fixed the connector and all worked. Make sure you have a cable signal at the end of the cable.


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## hospadam (Oct 14, 2006)

It's a Motorola TA and CableCard. 

I've tried unplugging the coax from both TA and Tivo for about 30 minutes, plugging them back in and rebooting the Tivo - no affect.

If I pull out the cablecard, then I can tune non-encrypted HD channels (CBS, Fox, etc) just fine - so I don't think it's a signal thing?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

1st check if your cablecard is both validated and paired:

From CableCard->Conditional Access screen what are your Con and Val values?

VALIDATED AND PAIRED PROPERLY EXAMPLE
Con: Yes EBCP: Yes Val: V 0x0E

If you see a "No" after Con then your card is not properly initialized and that would explain why no channels.
If you see a "?" aver Val then it is not validated - that will prevent you from tuning CCI protected channels but shouldn't be cause of no channel lineup.

If your cable card settings look OK then I would suggest re-running guided setup with TA disconnected and no cablecard and choose option "will get cablecard later". Then once guided setup is complete insert the cablecard.


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## hospadam (Oct 14, 2006)

Under "Conditional Access" - I have

Con: No EBCP: Yes Val:? 0x04

So it would appear the Card isn't properly initialized. But - Charter is telling me it is? But clearly it's not?  Any ideas on what to tell the tech when they come out?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Show them that screen. Until the Con=Yes you're not getting any channels as your card can't talk back to the headend at all at the moment. Could be you just have a bad card. There's no need for a truck roll to replace it. Take the card back to a customer center and swap it out for another and ask for the 800 number to call to get it paired (typically the national number is better than the local number for these types of things).


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## hospadam (Oct 14, 2006)

Thanks for your help. This is my second card - and the first one had this exact same problem. What are the chances I've gotten two bad cards though? Is there anything in my house that could prevent this from getting "the hit"?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

hospadam said:


> Thanks for your help. This is my second card - and the first one had this exact same problem. What are the chances I've gotten two bad cards though? Is there anything in my house that could prevent this from getting "the hit"?


 Pretty slim chance you got 2 bad cards. More likely you got a bad technician trying to set them up not sending the right kind of "hits", or they entered the numbers from your cablecard wrong in your account. If you have been contacting local representatives you may be better off calling a national 800 number or escalating to a cablecard expert if there is such a thing for your cable company.


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## hospadam (Oct 14, 2006)

moyekj said:


> Pretty slim chance you got 2 bad cards. More likely you got a bad technician trying to set them up not sending the right kind of "hits", or they entered the numbers from your cablecard wrong in your account. If you have been contacting local representatives you may be better off calling a national 800 number or escalating to a cablecard expert if there is such a thing for your cable company.


That's what I was thinking. Originally I had been calling the national 800 number and got nowhere. When the tech came (who is the "CableCard Guy" supposedly) he said they weren't on the account correctly. Today, his boss is supposed to come out. Hopefully we can get a resolution...


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

hospadam said:


> Under "Conditional Access" - I have
> 
> Con: No EBCP: Yes Val:? 0x04
> 
> So it would appear the Card isn't properly initialized. But - Charter is telling me it is? But clearly it's not?  Any ideas on what to tell the tech when they come out?


Under network in the cable card menu see if your message count is going up each time you press select, if it is not than you have no communions between the cable co head end and your TiVo cable card for some reason.


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## hospadam (Oct 14, 2006)

lessd said:


> Under network in the cable card menu see if your message count is going up each time you press select, if it is not than you have no communions between the cable co head end and your TiVo cable card for some reason.


If I press "Hunt" - it will say "Hunting for Network Data" - I then press "Exit" - and the number has increased (by several hundred/thousand).


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

hospadam said:


> If I press "Hunt" - it will say "Hunting for Network Data" - I then press "Exit" - and the number has increased (by several hundred/thousand).


You need the cable co to your home as they have a way of doing a full clearing out a cable card such that TiVo thinks that you removed the card, than build it back it back up, this did happen to me on one cable card change. TiVo and the cable card have a way of talking to each other in such a way that if you take a working cable card out of a working TiVo and put into another TiVo, then put the card back in the original TiVo the data will change and the card must re-paired. I tested this on my Comcast system and it was a pain to get the card re-paired to the original TiVo, if I had just moved it to another TiVo and had the card re-paired to the new TiVo it takes Comcast about 3 minutes on the phone.
I sure don't have all the answers but another thing is after not having power to a cable card TiVo, the card will not work after 45 days, it will start working within 3 days by itself after power is turned back on.


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## shrike4242 (Dec 1, 2006)

I ran into this issue with my in-laws and getting a new Premiere set up with them. Talked with Charter and had them pair the card on their end, though the Tivo would never get past that same 75% acquisition of channels.

Found that the cable jack was bad, as I ran a cable from the cable feed in the other room and without doing anything else save powering off the Tivo, connecting the new cable feed into the two-way splitter feeding the tuning adapter and the Tivo, I had the channel acquisition complete to 100%.

The preferred way to run the co-ax is a 2-way split from the wall, with one cable into the Tivo and the other into the TA. Some Charter techs have used the TA to do an in/out from the wall and to the Tivo, though when the techs have come out to my house to do the install of a CC + TA, they always split it at the wall and don't use the TA as an in/out feed to the Tivo. 

Could you move this Tivo and your TV into another room or run a cable from a known working outlet into this room and see if that fixes the issue? Another option, can you connect the cable to the TV directly (assuming it has a tuner), run a channel scan and see if anything comes up for available channels? 

I would also have Charter come out to your house and check all of the jacks to make sure they're all working without issue if you can't run a cable into the current location of the TV + Tivo.


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## jabloeme (Aug 19, 2013)

I know this is an old thread, but due to it coming up high in Google's search results and based on going through a multi-day 4-5+ hour episode with my cable company, I thought I'd post an update here to help others avoid the hell I had to go through to get my TiVo working.

Once I got an incredibly competent manager on the line who knew what she was talking about (Rachael @ RCN), she explained that the most important screen to look at for TiVo cable card users is the "Conditional Access" screen under TiVo's settings >> Cable Card menu. You MUST see Con = Yes (not a no), Val = V (not a ? mark) and an Auth = S (there are some other values after that as well). If you do not have these values, the way that that cable company (headend) has sent the signal down to the box is the issue. She had to send signals at two separate times and those signals pulled up the card pairing screen on my TV.

This assumes that the correct Host ID, Data, etc. #s are properly filled out, which all 27 of the cable company employees asked me to repeat to confirm. And don't waste your time pulling the cable card in and out, resetting your TiVo box back to factory default...I did all of those. 99 times out of 100 she told me that it is not the cable card or TiVo box that is bad, but the pairing signal that was sent.

Give this link to any cable company (headend) who does not seem to know what they are doing: support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2569

Better yet, demand a manager who has experience with cable cards...that's the only thing that solved this problem for me. Good luck.

Jack


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## emax (Aug 22, 2012)

I will start with: I know this is an old thread, but due to it coming up high in Google's search results ...
I run into this problem yesterday ... Loading was stuck on 72% or 89%. I spent over an hour with Tivo Support and we did not get far. They said it might be defective Cable card.
I called back Comcast to make sure everything okay on their end and they confirmed: that it is :/

As a last resort i asked the comcast support to "un-pair" and pair again the cable card and that did it. Soon as she paired it again i got my channels. 

Hope this helps

thx,
--emax


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## mnb (Sep 15, 2004)

I have a new Roamio that's stuck at 72% acquiring channels. SNR is fine.

I've tried three cards, pair, unpair.

My older unit is a Premiere, it was never this difficult to pair. However, it dropped channels frequently. I got the new Roamio hoping it would fix that, but instead, it doesn't even work.

I guess I'll try another handful of cards in a couple days. But I'm about done with TiVo. I love how it works. WHEN it works. But with reboots taking 4-5 minutes and setup and troubleshooting a major pain, it's just not worth it any more.

IMO, the problem is the cable card technology the TiVo relies on. The cards are junk. And the ones that aren't are finicky.


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## jsweetman (Mar 25, 2010)

I had the same issue -- new Roamio Plus stuck at 72% acquiring channel info. Got Verizon support to reset then revalidate the cablecard. No luck. Put the cablecard back in the Premiere I had taken it from and it worked fine, so Verizon said the problem was the new Roamio.

Reading above, I saw references to the coax and realized that the new Roamio is sitting on an XL4 because it is still transferring some recorded programs. Since I never moved the coax to the Roamio, of course it couldn't get any channel signals. 

Once I move the coax, it took a few minutes (thanks 1k+ channel FIOS) but it now works fine.

---------------------
1 Sony Series 1 [retired]
2 Series 2 [retired]
1 HD [retired]
2 Premiere [1 retired]
1 XL4
1 Roamio Plus


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