Need new digital tuner for Cox communictions (1 Viewer)

[tomma123]

Hi everyone,

My cable provider, Cox Communications, has upgraded to all digital, and my Hauppague HVR-1800 is no longer working. Do I need to upgrade to a new digital card? If so, any suggestions?

 

[mm1352000]

Hello

Your HVR-1800 can receive analog and digital cable signals. The question of whether you need to upgrade depends on whether the digital signals are encrypted. If they are, you'd need a CableCARD tuner. If they're not (ie. clear QAM), you should be able to continue to use your HVR-1800.

Regards,
mm

 

[tomma123]

The message I get on screen now is something like "Cox has gone all digital, you will need to upgrade your equipment in order to view it' (I'm paraphrasing a bit, but something close to that), so maybe they're encrypted.

When Cox transitioned to all digital I had to get a converter box for one of my tv's that didn't have one, it was just connected directly to the cable. So, I connected that converter between my cable and the HVR-1800, then I started getting errors about missing encoders. I don't remember what the exact error was, if it helps I can reconnect it and get the error again.

So, aside from all that, is there a way I can tell if the signal is encrypted?

Thanks

 

[mm1352000]

The message I get on screen now is something like "Cox has gone all digital, you will need to upgrade your equipment in order to view it' (I'm paraphrasing a bit, but something close to that), so maybe they're encrypted.

I wouldn't make this assumption. Going digital and encrypting are completely different things.

When you see this message, are you watching an analog cable channel?

When Cox transitioned to all digital I had to get a converter box for one of my tv's that didn't have one, it was just connected directly to the cable.

Do you have any TVs that are still directly connected to the cable (without a converter box)?

So, I connected that converter between my cable and the HVR-1800, then I started getting errors about missing encoders. I don't remember what the exact error was, if it helps I can reconnect it and get the error again.

No, I wouldn't reconnect it.
What would be more helpful is if you could do the following:

1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Click "open log directory" in the top left corner.
3. Zip all the files that you find in that folder.
4. Post/attach the zip file here in this thread.

...and second:

1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Go to the "import/export" section.
3. Go to the "export" tab.
4. Tick all the options (export everything) and click "export".
5. Zip the export file.
6. Post/attach the zip file here in this thread.

So to be clear, I'm asking for 2 zip files. One containing all your log files, and the other containing an export of your current settings, channels etc.

So, aside from all that, is there a way I can tell if the signal is encrypted?

Please follow the instructions above and attach the 2 zip files. Once I've got access to that information I'll be able to give you more accurate advice, and perhaps be able to answer this question for you.

 

[tomma123]

Answers to your questions:

I get that 'we've gone digital' message no matter what channel I try to view

I don't have any TV's attached to just the cable, without the box, however I just disconnected the box from a TV and plugged it directly into the cable, and then I get the same 'we've gone digital' message.

Here's the log files and settings....

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks for the answer, settings and log files

From the settings I can see that you have a mixture of analog and digital channels in TV Server.

From the log files I can see that you tried to tune 2 channels so far today.
"WWLP Springfield MA#1" is a digital channel.
"28 ESPN" is an analog channel.

If Cox have gone digital as you say then "28 ESPN" and the 49 other analog channels that you have will no longer work. You can identify those channels by:

1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Go to the "TV Channels" section.
3. Click on the "Mapped Cardtypes" column header to sort the channels by that column.
4. All channels that have the value "analog" in the "Mapped Cardtypes" column are analog and will no longer work.

The other 384 channels you have are digital channels.

8 of them seem to be ATSC over-the-air channels (ie. in the TV Server channel list they should have "ATSC" in the "Mapped Cardtypes" column). I assume you have an aerial connected to receive them. They are not encrypted (ie. in the TV Server channel list they should have a green ball/dot/icon next to them).

The remaining 376 channels are digital cable channels. To receive these channels you connect the cable directly to the HVR-1800 without the converter box. These channels will also be marked as "ATSC" in the "Mapped Cardtypes" column. Currently only 5 of these are marked as not encrypted. I'm not sure if that is accurate. Some channels that are marked as encrypted may actually be not encrypted... and vice versa.

If I were you I would:

1. Delete all the analog channels. If they're not going to work anymore then there doesn't seem to be much point in keeping them.
2. To be sure I had all the channels that are accessible to me, I'd also delete and rescan all the digital channels. That would involve 2 scans:
   • One with the "tune QAM instead of ATSC" checkbox unticked (to pick up channels from the aerial).
   • One with the "tune QAM instead of ATSC" checkbox ticked and QAM tuning frequencies set to "QAM standard".
3. After rescanning, I'd map the channels to both tuners.
4. After mapping, I'd see how many of the digital cable channels are actually not encrypted. The easiest way to do this is to:
   1. Open TV Server configuration.
      
   2. Edit the tuner settings for each of your ATSC tuners, and tick "CAM enabled and present for this card".
   3. Go to the TV Channels section.
   4. Click the "Test timeshifting" button (I'm pretty sure it should be in the old version of TV Server you're using). This will go through and test whether TV Server is able to tune each channel. The channels that can't be tuned will be unticked to show that they can't be tuned. For 380 channels this could take a couple of hours.
5. Hopefully after all of this there are some digital non-encrypted channels available. If not, you'd have to consider whether you want to get a CableCARD tuner to enable you to receive digital encrypted channels (...assuming you pay for a cable subscription).

Does that help?

 

[tomma123]

Thanks for all the info. I'm going to do as you suggest and delete/rescan everything and see what we get. I'll let you know how that goes.

 

[Edalex]

Hopefully after all of this there are some digital non-encrypted channels available. If not, you'd have to consider whether you want to get a CableCARD tuner to enable you to receive digital encrypted channels (...assuming you pay for a cable subscription).

Probably it could fail to help since Internet is telling Cox could set copy-ones restrictions

 

[tomma123]

Well, it was nice while it lasted, but alas, I think no more TV server for me, at least not with Cox as my provider.

After rescanning everything I ended up with around 375 digital channels, only 2 or 3 of them were not encrypted.

I suppose I can look into a cableCARD but I think they cost way more than it makes sense for me to spend on this.

 

[mm1352000]

Sorry to hear that, but I understand your position. Don't hesitate to ask if you have any further questions.