So comcast is coming tomorrow to try and fix my cable a 3rd time

[apac]

I can't believe I didn't think of posting this sooner. The tech seems to know his stuff, and his supervisor is coming with him tomorrow to run a new cable line from the street, but maybe someone else can point out what the problem is.

When he hooked up the cable last wendesday (existing line to the house) the signal was real low so he installed a signal amplifier. After the amp was on he said the signal was strong enough to work, and it appeared to be. Everything seemed peachy - internet was working, a few cable channels were coming in clear - and I was waiting for the rest of the channels to come in after they activated the DVR.

Later that night when I was supposed to have all my channels some of them were perfect, but about half were getting minor artifacts, were totally unwatchable, or simply weren't coming in at all. The cable guy came back a couple days later, replaced all the connections inside the house, swapped the DVR box, and it STILL wasn't working correctly. In addition my cable internet keeps going in an out, not on a minute basis, but every other day it doesn't work.

The reason the cable guy was so perplexed is because he said you should either be getting all the channels, or none. He'd never seen a case where some channels are fine but others are not. Is this true?

 

[Greyd]

long shot - but could someone be messing with the line? (stealing it, tampering with the line,etc?)

Seems kinda weird that u need a signal amplifier.....

 

[apac]

You know, that was my thought, but I just sound like an idiot trying to troubleshoot it to him. He said the amp was needed because it was an abnormally long run, probably 200 feet from the pole.

 

[T9D]

If they have to many people using the signal in the area it will do exactly that to channels. When my brother and I would watch the same channel on differnt TV's the channel would be all screwed up. I've had it do that with neighbors too.

It may have been fine with the booster until that one or two more people started using their sets.

Dont know why it would be affecting the internet to though.

I'm thinking maybe there could be a sheilding issues with the wires. The may be picking up a lot of interference from somewhere. Could be radio signals or maybe it's coming through your powerlines.

Could be as simple as a faulty line. I had a faulty end on one of mine once and it did that exact same thing that yours is doing. Or a litle nick in the line could do it.

 

[daveymark]

the booster needs to be placed closer to the source...

 

[cpmer]

I dont know where to begin honestly. I guess first thing would be i gotta definetly take information from the internet with a grain of salt because some of these replies to his question are funny but in way long shot could be true. Second the tech you had come to your house is definetly not knowledgeable if hes "perplexed" because some digital channels arent coming in while others are. Im assuming its your digital channels because you said artifact problems and you can only get that with digital video. Third ive been installing and servicing cable for years now so im gonna go ahead with the little information i got and try to give you some what of heads up on your situation. Ok so there coming out to "replace" your drop line coming into your house. Im gonna go ahead and take this two ways. One your drop is old 59 line which should of been replaced on the install but instead the tech took the lazy way out and put in a amp which is bad because an old line lets in interference and amp will just boost the interference as well. Or there gonna put in a second drop to your house for your modem. Maybe since the distance between your house and the tap are so great your losing to much signal on your high end frequency which explains you getting artifacts on your digital cable. Im not sure why such a basic service call as this requires a supervisor other than its been a multiple repeat issue and you've hit the limit of repeat calls where the supervisor is issued by the the company to go out to see what the problem could be that it couldnt get fixed within the first few service calls. Basically when it comes down to it my suggestion would be to see exactly what there problem is wether it be old drop or to long of a drop because some techs will say its long drop even though its a old drop just because they dont want to replace it. After finding this out I would tell them you want a second drop because you shouldnt need a in-house amp unless you have a ton of outlets. Also im guessing that your being fed off high value tap or this tap has a dc pad in it which is bring down the high end signal. So second drop, no amp, but only if you really need a second drop other wise its sounding like its comcast not doing there job right or not wanting to spend the money on expensive tap or maitence fixes

 

[isekii]

OP. You do realize even if you have digital cable. NOT ALL CHANNELS ARE DIGITAL.
It's obvious your digital channels are the ones that are not coming out

 

[apac]

Originally posted by: isekii
OP. You do realize even if you have digital cable. NOT ALL CHANNELS ARE DIGITAL.
It's obvious your digital channels are the ones that are not coming out

Actually I get INHD just fine, and I'm pretty sure that's a digital channel.

Thanks cpmer that makes sense. I don't think it's an old drop because the house I'm renting was renovated 2 years ago. However, he did say there are a lot of people being serviced off that tap.

 

[Praetor]

If it's an abnormally long drop, then have them run an RG-11 drop rather than the typical RG-6. Digital is kinda finicky sometimes. Make sure all the fittings are done properly and tight against the splitters/equipment. One sucked out fitting, or poor jumper can cause digital tiling or some digital stations not to tune at all.

Troubleshooting cable is easy, because you just have to be smarter than the cable. And it's just copper, how smart can it be?

 

[Horus]

Originally posted by: apac
I can't believe I didn't think of posting this sooner. The tech seems to know his stuff, and his supervisor is coming with him tomorrow to run a new cable line from the street, but maybe someone else can point out what the problem is.

When he hooked up the cable last wendesday (existing line to the house) the signal was real low so he installed a signal amplifier. After the amp was on he said the signal was strong enough to work, and it appeared to be. Everything seemed peachy - internet was working, a few cable channels were coming in clear - and I was waiting for the rest of the channels to come in after they activated the DVR.

Later that night when I was supposed to have all my channels some of them were perfect, but about half were getting minor artifacts, were totally unwatchable, or simply weren't coming in at all. The cable guy came back a couple days later, replaced all the connections inside the house, swapped the DVR box, and it STILL wasn't working correctly. In addition my cable internet keeps going in an out, not on a minute basis, but every other day it doesn't work.

The reason the cable guy was so perplexed is because he said you should either be getting all the channels, or none. He'd never seen a case where some channels are fine but others are not. Is this true?

You still have a signal issue. That artifacting you're getting is called "Pixelization", and it happens when the digital signal is not totally complete. What'll probably happen is that they'll put a more powerful amp going to your hope at both the cable pedestal and at the actual line ends on your street.

OR, the line that's carrying info to that neighborhood is simply not powerful enough to carry the signal, in which case it will need to be replaced by a maintenance crew.

I deal with these problems EVERY DAY. (Tech support for a major Canadian Telecom company)

 

[apac]

Originally posted by: Horus

Originally posted by: apac
I can't believe I didn't think of posting this sooner. The tech seems to know his stuff, and his supervisor is coming with him tomorrow to run a new cable line from the street, but maybe someone else can point out what the problem is.

When he hooked up the cable last wendesday (existing line to the house) the signal was real low so he installed a signal amplifier. After the amp was on he said the signal was strong enough to work, and it appeared to be. Everything seemed peachy - internet was working, a few cable channels were coming in clear - and I was waiting for the rest of the channels to come in after they activated the DVR.

Later that night when I was supposed to have all my channels some of them were perfect, but about half were getting minor artifacts, were totally unwatchable, or simply weren't coming in at all. The cable guy came back a couple days later, replaced all the connections inside the house, swapped the DVR box, and it STILL wasn't working correctly. In addition my cable internet keeps going in an out, not on a minute basis, but every other day it doesn't work.

The reason the cable guy was so perplexed is because he said you should either be getting all the channels, or none. He'd never seen a case where some channels are fine but others are not. Is this true?

You still have a signal issue. That artifacting you're getting is called "Pixelization", and it happens when the digital signal is not totally complete. What'll probably happen is that they'll put a more powerful amp going to your hope at both the cable pedestal and at the actual line ends on your street.

OR, the line that's carrying info to that neighborhood is simply not powerful enough to carry the signal, in which case it will need to be replaced by a maintenance crew.

I deal with these problems EVERY DAY. (Tech support for a major Canadian Telecom company)

I'm just afraid they're going to say "tough luck, can't fix this" rather than run a new line with a maintenance crew.

 

[cpmer]

i would be very surprised if maintenance spends the money on replacing a amp or running new feeder line both of which are expensive. If your lucky enough to have neighboors complaining as well maybe they might do it then but more than likely they wont. I was assuming you might already have a RG-11 drop if the distance to the tap to your house is that great. Still curious as to why this requires a supervisor but one solution might be that the supervisor might have to make the final decision as to how to much money there gonna spend to try to make this work.