Date

Item

July 2009 - May 2011

Periodically I selected my favorites shortcut for the HDHomeRun Prime web page to check for any new news on the HDHomeRun Prime.  From there I navigated to the SilconDust HDHomePrime FaceBook page, Twitter page and forums to check for news there and to read the latest forum postings on the Prime.

Through these checks I learned that the Prime will be offered in a 3 tuner model and a 6 tuner model and decided that I wanted the 3 tuner model.

05/23/11

After selecting my favorites shortcut for the HDHomeRun Prime web page during one of my periodic checks for any new news I saw that 05/23/11 is the date Newegg would start taking pre orders for the 6 tuner model.

In checking the other items I learned the pre orders for the 3 tuner model started on 05/16/11 and I placed a pre order.  I also learned that the shipping for the 3 tuner model was scheduled to start on 07/29/11.

Late May

In preparation for the arrival of my Prime I ran the Digital Cable Advisor in Media Center.  After getting an error, because the experience rating of my computer is not high enough I learned that I had a rating of 3.2, but needed a rating of 3.3.  In investigating on the internet how to get the rating higher I found a file I could edit that would make the reading show as 3.3 even though it was not so the Digital Cable Advisor would give a success message.

Since my plans did not call for accessing HD or Premium channels with the Prime (would have required upgrades to my TV service) I was excepting video playback after the completion of Prime setup to be the same as it currently was and wanted to find about before investigating a video card upgrade.

Early - Mid July 2011

I learned that the shipping for the 3 tuner Prime models would be delayed approximately 2 weeks.

07/31/11

Flyers were posted in the lobby of my Apartment building regarding a Comcast digital conversion (The World of More Conversion).  They indicated that on 08/02/11 Comcast would connect a set top box to all cable outlets in apartments for which an upgraded level of cable service had not been set up.

The flyers indicated that once the conversion happened the set top boxes would be needed to view all expanded basic cable channels and provided details on the fee renters would have to pay if they didn’t turn in their set top boxes when moving out, but did not give a date for the conversion to happen.

08/04/11

I came home to find that Media Center was not recording any content on on-local and public access channels. It tried to record with the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 Tuner, failed due to a No TV Signal error, switched to the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 and got a copy protection error. Investigations revealed that the that the issue was due to the World of Now Conversion being completed in my area.

08/05/11

I placed my RNG110 set top box, remote, Comcast provided video cables and receipt in the Comcast bag I got during pick-up and left for work.  After work I exited my bus early and went to the recently opened new Comcast service center to see if I could exchange the set top box for a Motorola set top box which would eliminate the copy protection errors until I got my Prime.

The person behind the desk kindly informed me they only have RNG110 set top boxes as the Motorola boxes are older and that if I want a different box I would have to get a DVR box at a cost of 15.99 per month.

I left with my existing box took the next bus back to my apartment and reconnected the box to my gear.  I was forced to watch all shows that were not on a local channel live until my Prime arrived.

08/31/11

My pre order for the Prime was converted to a real order and my credit card was charged.  Based on the delivery details I suspected that prime would arrive at my apartment on 09/02/11.

09/02/11

I placed my RNG110 set top box, remote, Comcast provided video cables and receipt in the Comcast bag I got during pick-up and left for work.  At work I checked e-mail and learned that my Prime had been delivered.  After work I exited my bus early and went to the recently opened new Comcast service center to exchange my RNG110 set top box for a cable card.  I requested a cable card, but I did not specify the type as it was my understanding that Comcast only provides M-Cards.

When I got home the Prime had arrived, but it gave an error during setup stating that I have inserted the wrong card type.

09/03/11

Unable to locate my note from when I called about the new Comcast service center prior to my 08/05/11 visit I acted on a memory that the store opens at 9:00 A.M. on Saturday and with the wrong cable card in hand I boarded a bus that got me within walking distance of the store a few minutes after 9:00 A.M.  When I reached the store the posted opening time for Saturday was 10:00 A.M.

After waiting for the store to open I attempted to get the cable card exchanged for the proper type.  I was told that I had the only type there is.  After telling the clerk that there are two types, the type I got and one called an M-Card she finally called the main store which I did not go to, because you cannot get there by bus.  I learned that the store I am in does not have M-Cards, but that the main store does.

After turning in the wrong card so it can be removed from my account I made arrangements for my Dad to take me to the main store where I am able to get an M-Card.  Back at my apartment I located my note about the new Comcast Service center and found that the opening time on it was the time I had remembered not the correct time.

After removing my Happauge tuners from Device Manager, I performed setup for the Prime including cable card activation, powered off my computer and physically removed the PCI tuners.  In doing so I was unable to find a slot cover for one of them.  As I was about to call my Dad to see if he had one he can give me the next day I spotted the PCI modem that came with my computer in my parts drawer and recalled that I had removed it to get the newer tuner installed, because I could not get it to work in the computer’s empty PCI slot.  I reinstalled the modem to fill up the slot with no cover.

After turning the computer back on and waiting while a driver for the modem was installed I tested and found that everything seemed to working with the Prime.

At this time I had the Prime connected to my Lan’s Netopia 3347-02 router which prior to my Prime purchase was only connected to my computer and my Extreme 6.0 A&T DSL internet connection.

09/04/11

I discovered that the one of the Prime‘s web page was indicating that I needed to call the Comcast activation number.  After another call to the Comcast Cable card line something was done and within 45 minutes the message cleared indicate the Prime was finally setup properly. I had not noticed the improper setup the day before as my Comcast subscription level does not include any premium channels.

09/18/11

When I got up in the morning I had no internet access. I determined that  I could not access my Netopia 3347-02 router’s web page in I.E. by going to 10.0.0.1 and that pinging 10.0.0.1 form a command prompt yielded no response. I had to power cycle the router to get my internet access back.

09/25/11

I had the same experience I had on 09/18/11.  When I checked the router’s logs I found a crash dump.

10/02/11

I had the same experience I had on 09/25/11.  When I checked the router’s logs I found a crash dump identical to the one from before.  I tried to find out what the value of the cause register in the dump means to determine the cause of the crash via Google searches, but found nothing.

10/05/11

I installed a Netgear Gigabit Ethernet PCI Adapter in my computer and connected the Prime to it.  This solved the router lock up problem.