I have a Philips Model 32PF7320A/37 that was working well with the STB but has been troublesome and erratic with a cablecard. On Tuesday Oceanic Cable, A TW company, installed a SA PKM600 CC. The install did not go smoothly and they tried 2 different cards. When they left all seemed well with the exception of a small amount of tiling on the premium digital channels (HBO etc) whereas the HD equivalent channels were fine. I also have a 43" Sony rear projection on a DVR that has no problem with signal quality on HBO etc. Signal strength was +1 to +3 dbm. Now I lose all digital and HD channels a few minutes after turning on the set. Sometimes at turn-on I will get a window saying the CC is initialized and sometimes I don't. Regardless, I will lose the signals after a few minutes of viewing and a "chanell is not available" message pops up. The diagnostic window for the CC says the the card is authorized, I get ECM counts, no EMM counts the decryption status is OK and the powerkey status is ready with a zero KSE count. What should I be aware of so I can get this resolved with my provider? I must say, the tech who did the install really did his best but he admitted this is the first install he has done where there was a problem. Thanks for any input!
The fact that your STB is working ok doesn't rule out there is not a problem with the cable. I would be more curious to note (if you have access to the diagnostic screen in your STB) if you are seeing any corrected errors in the digital QAM? Also what type of STB is it (make and model)?
As for your data provided: Signal strength taken where and with what? i.e. are these the signals at your RF input to your Philips CC TV?, was an RF signal meter used?, and what frequency where they checking? The "CC initialized" message; have you noticed any pattern to this as in; do you see that message and everything is working ok?, or if you don't see that message your channels are missing? CP Authorization received is good ECM count indicates it is seeing the data to allow the channel to come in, I'd be curious if you go in and out of that menu section if the count is growing, even though you can't see the channel? EMM count at zero doesn't mean anything, the only time you should see that data is when the CC has initially been inserted and the "hit" is sent to activate the device. Powerkey Status ready is normal operating conditions as is the decryption status ok.
What I would do to resolve this matter? I would see if your STB is indicating any corrected errors in the QAM, as the chip sets in your STB are different from the chip sets in your Philips, there may be a threshold difference between the two, where the STB can understand what is missing and still construct the picture without flaws, but the CC TV can not. Outside of the diagnostic screen on your STB, having them run a test lead from the tap directly to your TV would indicate if there is a problem in your home wiring if the problem goes away. If the problem still remains, I doubt they have a portable CC TV that they can bring out and compare to your TV to show it's something in your TV and not the CC or cable plant. One other suggestion is to contact Philips and see if they have any ideas on what would be causing it to break up on your CC TV and not on the STB. Other then that, I'd have to say I wish you the best of luck getting it resolved. Maybe they can fly me out to Hawaii, I'd love to get out of the snow belt for a while lol
The signal strength of +3db is on the diagnostic screen of the DVR STB on the Sony Rear Projection TV. They did run a cable direct from the outside hookup to the Philips HDTV with no change in picture quality so the house wiring is good. They did check the signal with an RF signal meter but I don't know what it was at the time. I will check the STB diagnostic screen tonight and see if there are any errors in the QAM and answer the rest of the questions you posed.
By the way, it is winter here and it is getting down to the low 70s at night! ;-)
OK, an update. Oceanic sent out a tech who was totally clueless and had no briefing on the problems up to that point. He poked around for awhile and changed the cable card with the same results. They said a supervisor would be calling me to discuss the problem. In the meantime I contacted Philips and they gave me the number of a repair shop to come check out the TV. The tech at the repair shop said I would be better off exchanging the set for another since it was bought from COSTCO. So COSTCO gladly exchanged the set and I sat around for a week and a half waiting for Oceanic to come out and activate the cable card. Lo and behold the cableguy shows up with another card, installs it and we have the same exact problem...loss of digital premium channels and HD channels (HBO etc) after a few minutes and when the non-HD HBO or Showtime is on I get tiling. I am once again waithing with bated breath for "the supervisor" to contact me. They left me with a SA 8300 STB hooked up with component cables. It looks like crap!!! Plus, the display has these gigantic bars on both side of the screen on all but HD channels. Ah, its Christmas Eve and for now I will put off the battle until next week.
Well another group was out yesterday with yet another cablecard. But it looks as if progress is being made. It seems the tiling problem is only on the qam 64 tuner channels. So, when you turn on the set the CC is initialized and if you watch the qam64 stations I lose all digital and HD channels after a few minutes. If I watch any other qam channel station I can get around 10 to 15 minutes of reception until the system loses all digital and HD channels.
OK, there are no corrected errors in any qam however it is only qam 64 stations which are tiling. If you turn on the set the CC initializes and digital and HD come in fine. If you watch a qam 64 station (hbo & Showtime lower channels) you lose the signal for digital and HD after a minute or two. If you watch any digital or HD station that is not on a qam 64 tuner it takes much longer to lose HD and digital.