Bright House Networks - Legacy → Tuning Adapter works even when not plugged in ?

Does anyone (BHNExpert) have a theory as to what just happened at my house in Port Orange, FL? You see, a BHN tech came to my house to set up my newly purchased TiVo Roamio Basic HD DVR which has 4-tuners in the place of my Bright House DVR which only has 2-tuners. This also required the tech to set up the pairing of a multi-stream CableCard and a digital tuning adapter to my Tivo both of which he brought with him. The BHN tech was great and got the job done in 10 minutes. We both verified that ALL TV channels worked. It would have taken him less time but cell phone reception is poor at my house. After he left, I broke down the equipment so that I could rearrange it differently in my entertainment center. Once I had it all put back together, I turned everything on to verify that it all still worked; and it did. I checked all my channels (low and high) including the switched digital video (SDV) HD channels to ensure that the tuning adapter was hooked up correctly. All my channels worked including all the 1000's which are the SDV HD channels. While doing this, I noticed that the green LED on the front of the Cisco tuning adapter was not lit like it was when BHN was here. It blinks during the setup, then goes solid once it is paired. Now it was not lit at all even though ALL my channels still worked. I decided to verify that all my rewiring was correctly done. I was surprised to see that I had not plugged back in the AC power plug for the tuning adapter. That is correct. The tuning adapter was not even plugged into the AC power, yet my SDV channels were still all working. At this point, I plugged the AC power into the wall and the tuning adapter green LED blinked for a while and once it was initialized, it turned solid green and my SDV channels continued to work as they did without AC power. All I can theorize is that the TiVo DVR must have been able to provide enough power back to the tuning adapter (low voltage logic) via the USB cable which was always attached thereby allowing it to function. Any other theories out there?

I think you are missing something...like perhaps you wern't actually tuned to an SDV channel but thought you were. Can't say for sure but that's more than likely the deal.

That's odd, because every time I unplug the tuning adapter, I lose almost all signal. I always thought that it needed power to repeat or push the signal through the box to my TiVo. As soon as I plug it in, (and leave it turned off), the signal returns, but then the SDV channels don't work until I turn it on and it syncs up.

I don't blame you for doubting this. I would have doubted it too. I did in fact tune in SDV channels previously using 1020 WESH and 1286 SyFy. If I get time this weekend I will dig into my cabinet and perform a controlled test using verified SDV channels as published on the BHN website.

The way SDV works is if there is already a stream started by another user in the serving group then you would "leach" on to that stream (not requiring 2way of your own).
Typically, this doesn't work with tivo units BUT since you JUST unplugged it and already had the most up to date channel plan (channel plan is updated every time a new stream is started to let every other 2way device in that serving group know what frequency to tune to to get that specific channel) maybe you were able to leach on to existing streams.

this is just my theory on how it may have worked.

tim tim tim: That could be it how it was able to work when I had it unplugged, and there may be a 2nd explanation too. When I unplugged the tuning adapter's AC power adapter from the wall receptacle, the capacitor within the power adapter "brick" may have held (stored) a charge for a few minutes allowing the unit to still work once I moved it within my cabinet.

I have tried to duplicate this 10 ways to sunday and cannot. I suspect you were not tuned to a SDV channel... it happens...

Gary, try using one box assigned to the same account and that you KNOW is on the same service group. Go to an SDV channel, wait a few minutes then power off the T/A and see if the tivo will pick it up WHILE the other box is still on that channel. (assuming you didnt try that)

That's an interesting twist...will attempt late this afternoon if possible...lots of things on my plate first day back from long weekend.

I just ran 2 little experiments, and neither one duplicated the mystery on my SDV channels that I saw per my original post. For this test today, I tuned in to channel 1020 WESH which is an SDV channel and then I unplugged the tuning adapter power by disconnecting its AC adapter from the wall outlet. I lost the video channel immediately. I tried it again only this time I killed the tuning adapter power feed by disconnecting the DC power cord between the TiVo DVR and the tuning adapter power supply DC brick. This too caused immediate loss of video signal. So unless it was something along the lines of what tim tim tim theorized above, then I am at a loss to explain what I saw and apologize for everyone's lost time on this.

If nobody else on your serving group was watching that same channel then when you unplugged it dropped the stream that was generated previously. Its a hard one to duplicate if my theory is correct.