Seeking "intelligence" from users about a double HD HomeRun PRIME configuration

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
15,699
1,448
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I think I bought my first HDHR' for $120. I grabbed the second one two years later for about $80. I couldn't complain about the additional $2/month for the second cableCARD.

At one time, I'd allocated the six (2x3) tuners between machines so they weren't shared. That worked fine, but someone told me that the SillyDust hardware manages all that anyway, except for the problem with WMC limitation of 4 tuners circumvented by something like "tuner Salad."

All of this seemed to be working fine, and as I said, I could allocate the tuners between PCs and have the same performance on each PC.

However . . .

I had some shortcomings lately with my TV signal for certain channels. When this stuff happens, I bring up Silly Dust Setup and rescan the channels on each cableCARD device. Then I rerun "Setup TV signal" on my WMC for each PC.

The fam-damn-ily wouldn't "buy in" to TV-through-HTPC, preferring their cable-boxes and no recording features. I, on the other hand, have two workstations of my own.

When rescanning the channels in HDHR setup, I noticed something that perplexed me.

ON the PC currently feeding my HDTV and AVR, the cablecard node showing the three tuners in HDHomeRun PRIME "Config-GUI" displays for one HDHR':

Card authentication: Success
Card OOB Lock: Success
Card Validation: Success
Tuning Resolver: Ready

On the second HDHR' in the Config-GUI, it shows "Success, Success, Success," and "Unknown".

HOwever, attempting to record two channels at once (and I was prepared to try three or four simultaneous recordings), I see that the recordings are successful and that both tuners are being used -- a third green light on each one.

Now I go over to PC #2, where I've installed the SillyDust software but need to set it up for WMC.

Both HDHR'-'s show "Success, success, success" and "Ready."

Can someone explain this to me?

I was wondering if I should call the cable company and have the hardware reinitialized with a re-pairing of the cableCARD, tuning adapter etc.

I could also post at the Silly Dust or ask their tech-support, but thought someone in this forum would know something.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
Could have a cable card other tuning adapter going bad. Had something like that happen and cable company wanted me to replace the CC since it was about 5 years old.
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
15,699
1,448
126
OK -- You could either clarify, or your candor of not having used this HDHR' as two on the network would still be helpful.

I'm wondering if it doesn't have something to do with -- or indicate -- that there is some slave-master arrangement with 2 or more HDHR'-s. The other computer shows "REady" and "Ready" for both HDHR's. I believe the firmware update for the HDHR'-s was the one included in the HD HR DVR project or whatever it was called. Or maybe I need to re-pair the tuner that shows "unknown" with the cable card, but it should also show "Unknown" on the other computer.

OR -- the fact that I opened the silly-dust config/setup software while Media Center was porting a CNN news broadcast to my TV.

It couldn't be a bad cable-CARD if both tuners show up on the second computer as "success, success, success and Ready."

All I know so far is that I can record two (and probably -- certainly -- more) programs simultaneously and tuner LEDs -- one for each HDHR' -- light up. That means I successfully recorded simultaneously from each HDHR'.

Maybe Karajan -- forgot his precise handle -- maybe he knows?
 

Kartajan

Golden Member
Feb 26, 2001
1,264
38
91
I did not have anything productive to say, since I never ran dual primes, and have since gone to OTA based on my frustration with the constant battles with the flaky tuning adapters the cableco always gave me.. (Which I did actually go waaaaaaay down the rabbit hole with troubleshooting)

In my mind, if one PC says all good (s/s/s/r) on both, but the other PC is different, I would consider the oddball PC to be the problem. (Likely a software "hiccup" that may or may not just need a PC to restart)
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
15,699
1,448
126
I did not have anything productive to say, since I never ran dual primes, and have since gone to OTA based on my frustration with the constant battles with the flaky tuning adapters the cableco always gave me.. (Which I did actually go waaaaaaay down the rabbit hole with troubleshooting)

In my mind, if one PC says all good (s/s/s/r) on both, but the other PC is different, I would consider the oddball PC to be the problem. (Likely a software "hiccup" that may or may not just need a PC to restart)

At this point, I have a suspicion - the suspicion that when I open the Silly Dust software, I have left the HDTV facing my back right now continue to be fed by the very same PC. I suppose I'll actually need to restart, and re-check without opening Media Center.

I don't try to hide my confusion about these things, and some may say that I'm so deeply immersed in it that I'm "not confused." I always go for the quarterback-run, the most direct way of solving a problem even if I don't totally understand what causes it. But as far as using both tuners simultaneously, I don't think there IS a problem. The other day, I think I recorded three or four news channels at once. I knew Sean Spicer enough, I was sure there would emerge a flap about "crowd-facts" on the capitol mall, and wanted to be sure and capture several sets of camera-angles.
 

Elixer

Lifer
May 7, 2002
10,376
762
126
When I ran into issues with my SD tuners, usually, the problems was because of either signal, or a TA issue.
Have you noticed if the LEDs on the TA adapter are solid or blinking when you see "Unknown"?
You can also go into the TA's menu, and check what it says there via the SD's local menus into the tuning adapter (via web interface).

Can you post your signal levels, and how exactly do you have your tuners wired up? Are you using a 3 or 4 way spliter, and do you have any amps?
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
15,699
1,448
126
When I ran into issues with my SD tuners, usually, the problems was because of either signal, or a TA issue.
Have you noticed if the LEDs on the TA adapter are solid or blinking when you see "Unknown"?
You can also go into the TA's menu, and check what it says there via the SD's local menus into the tuning adapter (via web interface).

Can you post your signal levels, and how exactly do you have your tuners wired up? Are you using a 3 or 4 way spliter, and do you have any amps?

I'd love to pursue this now, but I've got a pile of other things on the front-burner. It apparently isn't symptomatic of a problem, so instead of pursuing "knowledge" any further, I made the iffy assumption that either (a) the tuners work together with one allocated as "tuner resolver" or (b) I had been accessing the HDHR' config/setup and web-page when the system with the HTPC function was running WMC and accessing the tuner.

I can tell you with great certainty however that I can set up three programs to simultaneously record while viewing a fourth channel, and both Silly-Dust HDHR'-s are being accessed. So I might find two tuner lights (solid green) on one HDHR' and another tuner light or two on the second one. The recordings are flawless.

Everything else seems to be functioning properly. The Tuner adapters that came with my two cable cards are all connected showing a solid green light. Both HDHR'-s show their two green "ready" lights.

Also, in recognition that I've been spending time on this Skylake rig, I did a preliminary setup of the HDHR' software and opened the configuration screens. Both tuner adapters show "ready" where I'd seen "unknown" before. So one system showed the anomaly, while the other system reports everything that would make you totally comfortable about it. How do I resolve something like that? Or is there something to resolve? I can't say.