Com Troubleshooting

COM (Missing Channels/LiveTV issues)

  1. If you are missing channels when working with a COM system you will first need to identify which kind of COM system it is, such as 
  • Vanilla COM (Basic COM with Pro:Idiom TVs which will usually involve scanning channels or mapping channels for the TV. If the property does not have Pro:Idiom TV’s you will usually see converter boxes as well such as: LG6500STB, 401 STB, Visium STB.)
  • COM with Transcoders (This will be a standard COM usually with Blonder Tongue Transcoders, however you might see other Transcoders such as: Floodgate, or Sencore Transcoders. The Transcoders play the role of the converter boxes/Pro:Idiom decryption software which will allow the signal to be displayed on the TV’s without needing them to be Pro:Idiom Hospitality grade TV’s.)
  • COM with AEP ( This will be a standard COM, however in each room you will have an AEP/AEP2 STB which will be the converter box and allow the signal to display on the TV through an HDMI cable.) 
  • COM with CMND server and Philips TV’s (This will be a Vanilla COM, however the TVs will receive their mapping from the CMND server files. You can also check the network connection of the TV’s, and streaming applications through the CMND server.) 
  1. Once you identify which COM type it is, you will need to verify a few more details such as 
  • What channels are missing? 
  • Are the issues stemming from the local channels?
  • If the issues are with the locals, are the locals being inserted through an AQT8, MMC?
  • Does the property have a community channel, and is that having issues?
  • Are the channels missing property wide or is it isolated to a room, and or section of the property?
  • What are you seeing on the channels with issues, are you seeing any pixelation, blank screen, 771 error, “unfortunately this channel is temporarily unavailable”, or completely missing the channel in the lineup?
  1. Once you have identified this you will need to first and foremost login to the COM through the Laptop located on top of the COM rack. To be able to access the COM the laptop will need to be connected to the COM with an ethernet cable. One end of the cable connected to the laptop’s ethernet port, and the other end connected to one of the COM’s ethernet ports. (If unsure what IP address you need in the IPV settings or having issues connecting laptop, please refer to the following training(https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=technicolor%20coms%20for%20support) 
  1. Once you are logged into the COM through one of the blades, you will need to go to the overview or discover page. Here you will get a brief look at the channels and if they are communicating. You will need to look over the channels and ensure that you do not see any red highlighted channels that should be tuned to a DirecTV channel. 
  2. If you see any red you will first need to identify if it’s due to no bitrate, low SNR, bad signal, or possibly a SWM error that will appear on the last column on the overview tab.
  3. If all channels are highlighted red and not receiving any sort of bitrate and no signal, the first thing you should do is check the DirecTV Dealer portal, and ensure that the account is not suspended, and ensure that all blades are active and mirrored in the dealer portal with the HD component assigned to each blade. 
  4. If you have verified this, and are still missing channels you will want to ensure that all blades are communicating. Depending on how many blades the COM has you will need to make sure you can login to each blade, and the channels are communicating. (If you are uncertain how many blades the property has, just ask for a picture of the COM, and you can then verify how many blades are within the chassis)
  5. If you are still not getting any signal strength or bitrate, you will want to make sure that all blades, and QAM are up to date to the most recent software version as this can be the culprit. You can locate the newest software version on the Vantiva documentation library at the following link.

(https://www.vantiva.com/connected-home/commercial-video-solutions/video-multi-client-solutions/)

    If the blades and QAM are not up to date. You will need to download the latest version, and update the blades through the pairing info tab, and upload the QAM file through the pairing info, but update the QAM through the QAM tab.