Hdhomerun Prime only seeing local channels.

I live in omaha ne and have 2 hdhr primes running when i installed my 2nd hdhr i had to go through 4 different cable cards before it got more than just the local's and religion channels more than likely it is your cable card whatever you do dont pay cox to have a tech they should pay for it and make sure they bring 4-8 cable cards they are very finicky this is more than likely your issue i have the same setup essentially as you

you can call the tech line make sure they re pair it then have them attempt to reset the ta and cable card from their end once they are able send the command and have it respond if the channels are still not there it is more than likely the cablecard

i have been having my own issue but i think its account related have my own post i am missing 2 hd hbo channels of the like 6-8 im supposed to get 

Thanks for replying...it's good to know someone else has had a similar problem and was able to get it corrected.

I just picked up a new cablecard from a Cox store, so I'll see how that one works.

Can I ask how you have yours connected? When I first brought the self install kit home, it said to use a splitter to connect the tuning adapter and cablecard device (the HDHomerun Prime in my case), and put a POE filter between the tuning adapter and splitter. Neither a splitter or filter were included in my kit, so I stopped at a Cox store to pick them up separately. Also, when I first picked up the cablecard, they scribbled out the reference to connecting a USB cable on my self install instructions, saying that wasn't needed. But on my second call to get help, I was told I needed to connect a USB cable between the tuning adapter and the hdhomerun, so that's how I have it now. Don't know why I was told I didn't need to the first time.Also, I've tried connecting the hdhomerun straight to the RF out of the tuning adapter, and also to the same splitter the tuning adapter is connected to (so they're in parallel....my current configuration). I was just curious how your working setup is connected. Thanks!

Firstly yes the USB is NEEDED.  They tried to tell me the same thing i never even attempted it without but everything i read prior to purchasing my hdhr said i needed usb i currently have mine in series and it works my first one i got a good cable card right away the second hdhr i purchased about 2-3 months later i went through 2 on my own then i called a tech and they brought about 4 more and eventually got it working he had told me he had heard from the person he was contacting to get things setup that she had once had to try 8 different cablecards they are very sensitive from what i understand but it will either work or it wont you will know the difference right away but my 2 run off a splitter to the ta and from the rf port to the hdhr with usb running to hdhr from ta as well biggest thing i can tell you is make sure you have a quality signal to the ta/hdhr they are digital tuners and require specific parameters so if you are using old cable/splitters it may impede signal strength right now i am troubleshooting mine as i am missing 1300 and 1308 and have the splitter in my house now directly connected  to the line from cox itself bypassing a 3 way that goes into a 10 way splitter and it is now barreled straight into the line and still missing 1300 and 1308 hbo and i belive hbo west? not 100% sure i just know they are missing next attempt will be changing out cablings as i have direct access through a hole that was for a prior a/c unit i can re run new cable from the box to the splitter which through the wall is only about 6' hang in there it will be well worth the wait a few more tips i can advise you of would be mychannellogo's great for putting channel icons onto wmc and mcebuddy great at remuxxing from .wtv to .ts still mpeg-2 format just changes the container because if you try to watch .wtv from any other device in my case my xbox's and other zotac nano htpc's it will only provide audio and scrambled picture but mcebuddy watches the recorded tv folder and then remux's into new container right away OH and if you arent running any MoCA which is network of coax you dont need the POE filter its just another thing to lower signal quality if its not needed they are typically used if you have like a whole home dvr that accesses the main dvr over cable network and uses client boxes to access it creates a home network of your coax if that isnt present in any way shape or form dont worry about the filter

just thought of this just incase you hadnt been doing it every time you switch out your cablecard or make adjustments to your signal strength you will need to use the HDHR config and rescan for channels for it to see if you made improvements 

Thanks for all that information. I have my outside cable going straight to an drop amp and all the cable in the house connects to that. Based on your setup, maybe I'll go back to running the hdhomerun off the tuning adapter's out and save an out on the amp. I'll also try taking the filter off, since it sounds like it's unnecessary in my situation. 

A couple more questions for you: everytime Cox says everything is activated and paired on their end, if I go into my hdhomerun menu and go into "Cablecard Pairing", it always says to call the cable company (even though they already said it looks good on their end). I had always assumed that menu referred to the pairing of the cablecard with the tuning adapter. But the last time I called support, I was told that menu actually referred to the pairing of the cablecard with the media device (the hdhomerun). What's your experience with that menu? Everything else in the other menus say things are validated and authorized, so I don't know why that one menu doesn't seem to agree...  But I wonder if that's where my problem lies. WMC keeps saying my cablecard still needs to be activated, and I wonder if it's getting that from that menu. 

When you talk about rescanning, does it matter if I do or don't scan within the hdhomerun menu before I scan with WMC?

I've heard of mcebuddy. With my setup, I have a script that renames my .wtv recordings when they're done to a Show - s01e01 - Title format and use Plex to pick those up to make them accessible on my other devices (Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, phones & tablets.) 

OK wmc doesnt "scan" for channels, you may have your configuration set up wrong.  you need to scan from within the HDHR as it assigns channels and without the hdhr receiving them in its lineup wmc wont be able to tune. and 

is what mine says in the cablecard menu if that is what you are asking.  windows media center you will set it up and choose to use your hdhr it will give you the info you just skip past that if you have already activated once you finish the windows setup you can edit your guide to show what you actually receive.  but the big thing is to make sure the HDHR scans for channels not windows windows will tune a guide channel based off the info it receives from the HDHR

i use mcebuddy to assign new home on a different hdd as i use a 500gb to do the remuxxing then it moves it to my 4tb hdd but it can use wmc data to assign the episode title season number episode number etc its all customizable and then it will delete if you want it to the original file can also remove commercials if you like  something to look into.  i use plex as well to serve up over dlna to my xbox's since their app ** but dlna works good

I'd heard that WMC was the only way you could get to the encrypted channels, so that's why I thought it would have to do the scan. But you're saying doing the scan within HDHR should at least list them? It hadn't even been listing those channel numbers when it did the scan.

Did you copy and paste that from your working HDHR? That's interesting, because mine says "Success" next to Card Validation (It said "None" like yours before Cox said they activated it). I was actually referring to something different. In that Cablecard menu, there's a link for "Cablecard Pairing". When I click on that, it says I need to call the cable company to start service for this device. I just wondered if your working HDHR said the same thing. 

believe it or not it was working perfectly it appears that cox only DRM's a handful of channels and i just got off the phone with the cablecard hotline for cox and it has fixed my 1 missing HBO and my SD hbo's and now they show in list with a little DRM next to them who woulda thunk i thought they validated it 10x over and it was just a mis labling on my end HAHA im happy well its showing it i havent tested channels but i am happy!! wmc has what is needed to decrypt/watch DRM but isnt required to "scan" for channels 

did you get yours working properly now then? i had cards in the past that validated and paired but were faulty cards

Congratulations on getting your problem fixed! Was it just continually trying to activate your cablecard that did the trick? Or did phone support do something else that made the difference?

I'm still missing the HD channels I'm trying to get. Not sure if this is actually the problem or just another symptom, but I paid really close attention while the HDHomerun does it's scan. When it hits the block of channels I want, the signal strength drops to around 50%, and it doesn't get a modulation lock. Everything else (whether it's a channel I'm subscribed to or not) has signal strength of 90%-100% and lists qam256 under Modulation Lock. I've even tried bypassing my drop amp and connecting the tuning adapter and HDHR straight to the cable that comes from outside. Now I'm wondering if the cablecard isn't to blame after all. The channels I want (1025 TLC HD and 1027 TBS HD) are in the 480-495MHz range (I don't remember the exact numbers, but they were in there somewhere).

it was a fluke of a fix actually, i wouldnt have caught it if i hadnt called reluctantly.  the tech said that one of the cards wasnt paired properly, once it was paired properly the card was authenticated properly. SO my phone died as she did that but then i said well *** lets re run a scan before calling back and 1 of the cards now got the DRM channels while the other didnt. so i called them back after verifying the fix indeed worked had her remove/unpair the other card and asked her to treat it like a new activation, she obliged and voila it worked. wondering if the firmware that just came out on the 6th helped that because i had it paired and authenticated over and over at previous attempts and never once did it have success listed.  each channel will be on a different freaquency and some frequencies get better db strength what you want to look for is your lowest signal strength channel then do some testing with your wiring.  but when i had my cable card issues it would find some of the regular channels but wouldnt find anything inbetween i want to say it skipped from 25 to like 40-50ish and found very few channels by comparison i mean it might have found like 80 programs but of the 437 i get that is nothing lol.  list your tuner status for like tuner 0 while tuned.  but more than likely it will be a cablecard once i had changed them out enough i made them send a tech and he was able to get enough cards that he eventually got one that worked you will know the difference of a working card because it will find quite a few more channels i dont know what package you have but for instance the cox advanced tv prefered is like 290 channels but due to hd/sd crossovers its more like 437.  i knew that once my cablecard was able to get like usa tbs tnt spike etc that the card was good.  and now everything is good both cards authenticated and all my hbo's are there including standard its odd all the standard hbo's are DRM but only 2 of the HD hbo's are DRM thats what threw me i figured since i had hbo's just was missing 2 that it was something odd going on. by the way TLC is a DRM channel.  any information you can post in here from your status might help determine your problem

Well, I swung by a Cox store to swap out my tuning adapter, and they gave me a new cablecard, too. But now things seem to be worse when I do a scan with the new equipment. I'm still not picking up the TLC & TBS HD that I've been missing all this time, and now all the music channels that were popping up with the previous equipment aren't showing up now (That's not a huge deal...but it would have been a nice perk if I had ended up with those when this was all over). Another odd thing, is more of the channels that it does pick up are listed with a DRM symbol behind them...and they weren't with the old cablecard/tuning adapter (channels like QVC and Univision).

So I might try swapping them out for yet another cablecard and tuning adapter. But it's kinda looking more and more like I'll just have to have a tech come out and look at things. 

You do not need to exchange tuning adapters every time.  It is more than likely your cable card.  make sure validation is success. I dont think QVC  or Univision are DRM nope tey are not DRM.  Bad cablecard.  More than likely when all is said and done you will have the music channesl. 

where is your signal strength and signal quality?

If you have a tech come out make sure its free because its the cablecard that is the problem not your equipment.  The cablecard is cox' responsibility. Make sure the tech you have come out has extra cablecards.  

When you swapped cablecards did you call the cablecard hotline? you would need all new cablecard id host id and data info to give to them for it to work properly. You could try calling them again and telling them to delete all those numbers to try doing this because it has worked in the past in my instance and re-give them all those numbers.  Once everything is success on HDHR then attempt to scan channels.  If no change its the cablecard as long as our signal is -10 +10 in between and around 37dbmv for quality closest to 37.

To put some perspective on it for you.  A cablecard is a sensitive piece of electronics similar to many other computer components the microprocessors etc inside can be fried by a static shock less than what you can see or feel by simply rubbing your feet on the carpet.  much much less is required to fry pieces so when they are handled improperly by past users or solution stores when turned in they can be damaged without showing physical symptoms of said damage.  in my case my first hdhr had a flawless cablecard first try the 2nd one i had to go through i think 4 or 6 cards i dont recall had a tech come out who had enough spares.  as i said before when the tech was here he had heard from the cablecard hotline he was on with that they had an instance of 8 cards being bad before finding a good/acceptable one.  now if you measure that by when you have time to make it to the cox store that could be 8 - 16 days or more depending on your schedule. for me it would probably be longer.