CableCARD diagnostic tool gets previewed at Media Center University

Say hello to some of the first screens from the Digital Cable Tuner Diagnostics (DCTD) tool, courtesy of CE Pro, who got a peek as it was shown off during the Media Center University currently underway at EHX Spring. It can check individual channel strength, whether you're properly paired and provisioned with the cable company and that you've been set up with all the channels you're paying for. The bad news is you probably won't be doing any of this, unless the software leaks or something changes, since it's only going to be available for the ($500 membership fee required) Media Center Integrator Alliance. For those who've dropped coin on a high end custom media center installation, it should cut the time and heartache installed significantly, but detailed help for the rest of us is in another castle.

[DoctaDJones Posted Mar 13th 2009 9:26AM]

So basically it gives me the same data I can get from my settop box's service menu, and my TVs digital tuner service menu, and my HD Homerun's diagnostic information.

Why is this not built in by default? Are they trying to make CableCARD fail?

[Jonthomasdesigns Posted Mar 13th 2009 9:32AM]

Yes.

Of course they want you to rent the Box for $ 10-15 a month or whatever they charge

[erwos Posted Mar 13th 2009 11:11AM]

You can get CableCard pairing info from your HDHomeRun? I think not. SPEAK OF THINGS YOU KNOW, MORON!

[DoctaDJones Posted Mar 13th 2009 12:58PM]

LOL, of course you can.
Just open the HDHomerun housing, jam the CableCARD in there, screw it back together, and voila. I guarantee it will work just as well as if you used the card in a supported device.

But your right. I was just referring to the channel info (ie modulation, SNR, etc.), and the fact that a devices like cableCARD should have some way of getting diagnostic info from it out-of-the-box. Maybe not in a nice GUI like this, but at least in a terminal window or something.

(Side note: I like how the screen shot provided both show the Overall Status as failed. I wonder if that's for demonstration purposes, or a common occurrence.)

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2009 8:12PM]

Actually the DCTs have a built-in trace function plus some diagnostic info. The problem is, no documentation really exists (that I have seen) that explains how to use it and what the trace info means. There is also some basic diagnostic information available via the MCE interface.