# Acquiring Channel Information



## debbie6754 (Nov 1, 2002)

Comcast is here now. He is trying to install the cablecards. We are stuck at "Acquiring Channel Information" We have tried 5 times. We even switched and tried the other card. Any ideas?


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## debbie6754 (Nov 1, 2002)

debbie6754 said:


> Comcast is here now. He is trying to install the cablecards. We are stuck at "Acquiring Channel Information" We have tried 5 times. We even switched and tried the other card. Any ideas?


We just learned that the person in the Comcast office assigned the wrong "plant" number to the cablecards. Moving ahead...


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## davidahn (Jun 6, 2005)

I just had an install with Verizon Fios, same problem... neverending "Acquiring Channel Information" with the spinning beach ball. Verizon techs seem to be, on the whole, completely clueless about how to make the CableCards work with the Series 3.

David


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## r11roadster (Oct 24, 2006)

I am getting this on my HD unit w/out cable cards. Have a mix of antenna and basic cable. the series 3 w/cards is running fine. Had to reboot the HD to clear it up. this was a fter a power failure. Would suck if I went away for a week and found that when I returned.


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## joe warner (Dec 8, 2006)

r11roadster said:


> I am getting this on my HD unit w/out cable cards. Have a mix of antenna and basic cable. the series 3 w/cards is running fine. Had to reboot the HD to clear it up. this was a fter a power failure. Would suck if I went away for a week and found that when I returned.


I had this happen to my Series3 TiVo. Actually it has happened twice. Both times it turned out to be the unit itself (Hard Drive both times). TiVo replaced the units twice. Each time the problem went away. The first replacement lasted two months and had to be replaced due to the "Acquiring Channel Information" message. I've received my second Series3 TiVo about four months ago and it is still working fine. I wouls suggest (if you havn't already done so) calling TiVo customer support and see about a replacement unit.
This also referes to davidahn's article #3 above.
P.S. Had both cable cards replaced and that didn't fix the "Acquiring Channel Information" problem. It was definatelt the unit(s) themselves.


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## memoody (Jan 22, 2007)

This happened to me today during my install... I'm doubtful that it was related to the unit. I had updated the hard drive on it, so the most recent post scared the heck out of me. Turns out that I got the "please wait... acquiring" screen, then the guy power cycled the Tivo box - when it came back up, the "Data" setting in the unit had changed so they had to change the setting back at the center. Once they did, things came up fine.


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## BeanMeScot (Apr 17, 2002)

If you get this Acquiring Channel Information screen, do you need to call Comcast to get it bumped? Mine was working fine then I added the DVR Drive Extender yesterday. Today it lost sound, I bumped it a couple of times, now I am getting the Acquiring Channel screen but I have sound!


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## smnorthrop (Jan 23, 2009)

I just got my Tivo HD DVR (Series 3) about a week ago. Since then, I've gone through 5 cable cards (Motorola M-Cards), about 8 calls to Comcast, a few calls to Tivo support, and 3 technicians. The problem I was having was that the "Acquiring Channel Information" page would just spin for about 5-10 minutes, then give me an error stating it could not get the channel list. I was just about to call Tivo to get the box swapped out, but a Comcast tech actually stuck it out without just quickly dismissing it as a Tivo problem.

THE RESOLUTION:
The last Comcast technician that came out made a call to an internal helpline. They said that they were going to check to see if the card was registered in the DAK (or DEK or DECK or DACK) - which is basically the main information processing center for the cable cards (at least that's my understanding of it). Every card is supposed to be registered in the DAK system when the information is burned in at the warehouse. The technician called and all of his cards that he had with him were not registered in the DAK - explaining why it was not able to communicate and get the channel information. The technician went back to the warehouse and found a card that was properly registered (the majority were not). When he brought that card and plugged it in, it connected without issue (quickly too). Once I re-ran the guided setup, I was good to go... almost. I then realized that I had no sound on my cable channels. But, I did have the Tivo sound effects. Que?? The resolution to that problem is going into the Tivo Central > Settings > Audio > Dolby Digital, then change it to Dolby Digital with PCM. I guess the issue is that my tv didn't have Dolby Digital sound available.

Well, I know that this was a pretty specific problem, but I wanted to at least get it out there so no one has to go through what I went through. Hope this helps.


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## pkrey (Dec 24, 2004)

I was getting the message too and I only use OTA.

It turns out, if you have an external hard drive with your HD Tivo and you lose power, you can get this problem.

Solution: Unplug both the Tivo and your external hard drive. Then plug in your External hard drive and let it run for about 20 seconds. Then plug in your HD Tivo. Your Tivo can mount the drive properly and the message should go away.

Worked for me anyways. Good luck all!


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## rcatarella (Dec 31, 2002)

pkrey said:


> I was getting the message too and I only use OTA.
> 
> It turns out, if you have an external hard drive with your HD Tivo and you lose power, you can get this problem.
> 
> ...


Just had same problem (but with 2 cablecards) and this was the fix. Thanks!!


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## cmaquilino16 (Jul 7, 2009)

rcatarella said:


> Just had same problem (but with 2 cablecards) and this was the fix. Thanks!!


Thank you so much, I hate missing with comcast. I had this same thing happen to me tonite for the first time. Just got back from my july 4th weekend trip, all the clocks were flashing so the power went out sometime,Well I never had a tivo problem with power flashing or going off but this time I did. Your tip worked great back up and working. I hope this does not become a problem. I had the the external drive for two years zero problems.

thanks


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## dougforester (Feb 23, 2007)

I got the "acquiring channel information" hard loop when I returned from vacation. I could view past recordings but do nothing that required access to channels. I tried everything suggested above but no difference. I did NOT have a power outage because none of the clocks in the house were blinking. And I have the Tivo on a UPS.
After chatting with Comcast for an hour, we determined that it was probably the cablecard that was bad. I went to Comcast local service and exchanged it for a new one. Put it in, called the phone number to activate it, and that solved the problem.


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