US Cable Support → Cox HSI > [AZ] "Not Subcribed" message on TV

[AZ] "Not Subcribed" message on TV

Over the last couple of months I have been getting momentary messages that display the channel name and that I am "Not Subscribed" and should call Cox to purchase the channel. Everything will be going just fine and then suddenly the message will pop up and then disappear after about 10 seconds. Seems to happen randomly, sometimes it will go all day without it, sometimes I will get it 5-6 times.

It has been getting especially annoying, especially during live events.

All of our set top boxes are Cisco 4642HDC and it has been happening on all of them at random times throughout the day.

Is there anything that can be done to prevent this from happening anymore?
The phone support does not have any idea about it and only wants to keep resetting the cable boxes without anything getting fixed.

My guess would be a signal issue with the out of band(OOB) frequency range that the box uses to report back to the backend. Think of it like the upstream power level on your internet modem, but different, because it's cable. If its happening on all the boxes then it could be a signal problem at the source. Do you have internet with Cox too? If so, any problems with that?

No issues with internet.

These are the signals on the DPC3010

Downstream Channels

Power Level: Signal to Noise Ratio:
Channel 1: 3.8 dBmV 38.7 dB
Channel 2: 4.4 dBmV 39.4 dB
Channel 3: 4.3 dBmV 39.2 dB
Channel 4: 3.4 dBmV 38.5 dB
Channel 5: 2.3 dBmV 38.4 dB
Channel 6: 2.0 dBmV 38.0 dB
Channel 7: 1.8 dBmV 37.4 dB
Channel 8: 1.3 dBmV 36.9 dB

Upstream Channels

Power Level:
Channel 1: 46.0 dBmV
Channel 2: 43.2 dBmV
Channel 3: 46.2 dBmV
Channel 4: 0.0 dBmV

the tv and internet don't use the same frequency, so one might be fine while the other is having issues. What's the weather been like? when it happens does it affect channels in the same tier?

Live in Scottsdale, AZ. Weather has been hot, 110+ in July and cooling down to the 90s now.

When it happens it is just for about 10 to 15 seconds at the most. Happens on all sorts of channels. I have seen it on local ABC and Fox channels, ESPN, Discovery, FX, Comedy Central to name a few.
I usually watch the HD channels but I have had it happen on non HD as well.

Had a tech come out. He changed the amp and some splitters but no more than a few hours after he left it happened again.

Internet has been fine. On Demand has been fine. Only while watching live TV does this happen and it is very random when it does. I have witnessed it at all times of the day.

Ch to Ch 1999

What is the power level for your FDC?

I've been getting this all week on my tivo with cablecard and tuning adapter. Got very annoying. (On a LOT of channels) I eventually unplugged my tuning adapter and restarted everything. After an hour, the tuning adapter connected to the tivo and all has been ok so far. (But it shouldn't take an hour to sync)
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Hit enter too soon.

The 3 boxes show:

75.500 MHz -7dBmV
75.500 MHz 4dBmV
75.500 MHz 2dBmV

They are all in different parts of the house.
The one with the -7 is one where the Cox tech added a new tap device and splitter right before it.
The other two are plugged directly into the wall with nothing else.

Just FYI, the reason I mentioned checking the signal levels of the modem was that is something most people know how to do (atleast on these forums) and can sometime show underlying issues. I was unaware of the technical expertise of the OP.

As I understand it, each cable box has something akin to a configuration file that defines what channels you get, the frequencies for those channels, etc. Its gets more complicated with some boxes and integrated cable cards, but its that file it's checking when it goes to tune a channel. Signal levels look good, multiple receiver issue, so my guess is something to do with SDV system? Anyone know how that system works?

you might try and look at your decryption fail time and reason... I know some of the reasons are 2—decryption failure due to lack of authorization, 3—decryption failure due to time outs while waiting to receive ECMs and 4—decryption failure due to CP binding failure. I have seen some boxes put similar error messages up for late keys. I also had one 4600 series box that ran very hot and had problems with the music channels if I didn't run a fan on it.

Since it is happening to more than one box, I generally suspect signal issues especially in OOB. My understanding of the modulation scheme of OOB, low signals are not uncommon and many actually need to get the signal down if it is amplified too much. Another problem that I have seen happen is channel "1" is right between channel 4 and 5 and occasionally some device is outputting on channel 4 incorrectly or channel 5 is slightly off (on cable it is skewed slightly higher than ntsc so it should not encroach on 75.5 but to me analog can do some weird things)

One more thing, not sure if it has anything to do with the issue:

All 3 boxes seem to reset in the morning at the same time every single day.
Around 6AM the cable boxes all go to channel 7.

The reason I know it has to be around 6AM is when you go to use the cable box later, the guide menu is stuck on the program title at the time it was set to that channel until you change the channel. It is always set to Cox channel 7's 6AM program.

Not really a big deal but possibly could explain something else causing the issue?

I never had this happen until recently as well. In the past it would stay on whatever channel it was last left on indefinitely.

I was not that familiar with channel 1999... as I always did it the old fashioned way of entering diagnostics mode (I believe on the 4642 series they made this easier as just holding power then press power again) but I checked and it would be in the cablecard section (which may take some time getting used to navigate) and you will probably have to do it before the reset the next morning. The resets I believe can be considered "normal" in many areas (my area used to always do it at around 2 or 3 AM but hasn't for awhile but it may be that I am not noticing it anymore if they moved it later as it used to affect a show I recorded) I generally use cablecard tuners and WMC and it may have been a firmware update on the tuner that allowed it to handle the resets more graciously. I still have a few boxes in some of my locations and I believe there was a setting on the box to what channel to tune to and I believe one was last tuned and I didn't notice it on the boxes anymore.

If it were just a few of the locals in SD that this was happening to I thought I found another possible cause but it would not apply to espn or the others but I believe recently in phoenix cox had moved the local sd channels to channel 4 which has been known to have a variety of devices output on (many have a 3/4 switch) and occasionally there are leaks back into the system.

Just FYI to anyone else who has this issue:

I believe I have it successfully fixed now.

Another tech came out late last week and installed an 8 port amplifier unit outside, replacing the 4 port that had previously been there.

The house has 7 coax outlets wired up and previously the amplifier had splitters directly after the amp. Now there are no more splitters after the amp, each outlet is going straight to one of the outputs directly on the amplifier.

He noted that prior to doing this the QAM SNR on all of the set top boxes was 27-30 and after doing this the QAM SNR is 35-38. All of the other numbers (FDC, RDC, etc..) stayed mostly the same, only the QAM SNR was boosted.

I have not gotten the not subscribed message since.
In addition the resets every morning around 6AM have stopped.

No idea why the old setup suddenly started causing problems, especially after the previous tech installed a new 4 port amp and all new splitters. So far going to an 8 port amp and eliminating the splitters is the method that has solved the problem.