Cable TV Problems

[Teegate]

Since this time of year is a little slow ...lets discuss internet service. (Comcast)

A little over a month ago both daughters started to have poor signal strength where the TV picture would pixelate and the DVR would cause the blue screen with the message saying the station would be available shortly. They are at the end of the line in my house and the other TV did not seem to have a problem. I figured the problem was somewhere in between so I ran individual lines to each room and acquired new splitters from Comcast. Unfortunately, all of my work did absolutely nothing. After two weekends of playing with this with no results, I went outside and bypassed the ground connection and small jumper cable that they had placed on the side of my house and instantly the signal problems went away and all is well here. Problem solved.

Then last week my wife told me her sister was having the same problem. And right after that my mom started having a similar problem. Her TV with the DVR would constantly go to the blue screen and notify her that the channel would be available shortly. She also lost the sound sometimes for hours. My brothers TV in his room would pixelate occasionally but he does not have a DVR, only the HD cable box. She called Comcast twice and the same man came to her house both times and did quite a bit of checking and even replaced her DVR and other things. The line from the pole to her house was replaced last year. After checking her signal strength in three places he told her nothing was wrong with the service and it had to be her new TV causing the problem. Both times when he was there the problem did not occur for him to see it. Since I had been told a few years back my modem was bad and after replacing it it turned out the fault was theirs, I was annoyed as hell that he was blaming her TV.

On Friday night the service was so bad she could not even watch it. I So I dragged my brothers TV out to the living room and hooked it up to her connections. Sure enough, his TV had the same problems with no sound at times and the DVR message that the channel would be available shortly occurred which proved to me it was not her TV. I took a video of both TVs side by side with his on having this all occur which I will show to the man who is coming out tomorrow.. I then went under her house and bypassed all connections and ran the main line right into her new DVR box using all of the new cables put on a few days before. To be more specific, I had her line come from the pole to the house where it connects to a splice adaptor (replaced also) where the cable then ran right to her DVR. Her TV demonstrated the same symptoms.

So I made a call and they now know my opinion on what I think of this and I will be there when they come on Sunday to look at it for the third time. So, is anyone else having this problem? Three related people in three homes far apart having the same weak signal problems. So to really get to my question to all of you, I want to know is if anyone here has used a signal booster such as this one? Did it work well? The reviews for it are exceptional I think.

http://www.amazon.com/PCT-BI-DIRECTIONAL-AMPLIFIER-BOOSTER-PASSIVE/dp/B000F28DP2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1422744711&sr=8-4&keywords=cable booster splitter

Has anyone had this same problem recently? Did you solve it yourself and how?

Guy

 

[46er]

I had a similar problem a few years back; Comcast replaced the underground cable and all connections from their junction to the house and that fixed the problem. Also had a problem with internet speed, a chat session tech fixed that in about 10 minutes. I do not call Comcast, found that to be a waste of time, but the chat tech feature has always given me good service. In any case, their service is not worth the money they charge. As soon as my 'special' Comcast pricing expires I will be moving to one of the new antennas and the ChromeCast or Fire Stick. I have the Chrome but will check the Fire stick as I have heard good things about it. ROKU has something similar, but more money.

 

[Teegate]

When I had problems with my cable modem a few years back, the repair person told me that anytime I have problems where I believe it is not in my house I should request they replace the connector on the pole where the line from the house screws into. He said that is the main culprit for signal loss when it corrodes. It is very hard to notice it until it is replaced. The line from my moms house to the pole was replaced a year ago only because it was sagging. They replaced the line and moved the connection point at her house but most likely did not replace the connector.

 

[GermanG]

Been very bad here lately. Some nights we've gotten less watchable channels than in the days before cable. My wife tried calling Comcast, which was an exercise in frustration. After doing a bit of online reserch I am considering getting one of those signal amps as well, and replacing the coaxial cable inside, which is pretty old and might not be what is recommended by digital service. If that doesn't work it will be my turn to battle Comcast. I swear, if I lived alone I'd take all my TV sets out to the range with my Hawken rifle and have some fun, then spend more time at home doing worthwhile things.

 

[Teegate]

I have been reading up on the boosters and learned this. First, the rating on this particular one is quite good and for many people it will help. However, at +15db this unit goes into compression. This means if your signal strength is 16 it actually will degrade your signal and all boosters have "noise" from the amplifier which will degrade it even more. So if you want a stronger signal if your input signal is fairly good you will want to buy a 30db preamp unit which obviously will cost more.

Each splitter causes a 6db drop so finding ways to eliminate them is important.

 

[bobpbx]

Guy, about 5 years ago I had a bad signal problem. I was also using an electric amp at the time, one of the earlier ones. It did not help me much at all, but was not related to the problem. The technician went down to the basement with me and when I pointed out my amp he smirked like a little smart ass.

Long story short, he did a bunch of readings at the pole and replaced a small component up there, and everything cleared up (except his smirk).

 

[Teegate]

That component is what I believe to be the problem at my moms. When I bypassed all of her splitters and the problem was still occurring, that was the only component on the line coming in from the pole except the male to male splice adaptor which both Comcast and myself had replaced. The cable is newer than a year old.

 

[46er]

That component is what I believe to be the problem at my moms. When I bypassed all of her splitters and the problem was still occurring, that was the only component on the line coming in from the pole except the male to male splice adaptor which both Comcast and myself had replaced. The cable is newer than a year old.

Might try giving the connection that was not replaced a little squirt of WD40 and see if it helps, but you then run the risk of the tech getting good readings and not replacing it.

 

[imkms]

One of my worse dreads is having to call Comcast and after having problems with them off and on for 35 years, I knicked the cable. I kept it for Internet, but kept the basic TV station bundle as it was cheaper to do that than just Internet alone! I put 2 antennas in the attic (didn't want signal reduction from a splitter) and receive excellent HD or stations on 77 channels. I am within 28 miles (as the crow flies) from most philly stations, so your mileage may vary. Probably only about a dozen or so interest me after filtering out the shopping, religious and Hispanic stations. The antennas also provide a few stations that my cable bundle does not and it is a failover if cable stops working. I also have Amazon prime which has its share of decent video to watch and I use chromecast as well at times. Paying for all of the former comcast channels eventually made me feel like going to the grocery store, spending $100 and only eating $20 of the items. I wouldn't do that for groceries so why do it for TV and I am now saving $80/month!
I also recommend and use a Roku on one of the TVs, because it has a lot of built in Video Apps (stations) and unlike chromecast does not require a PC to be on to receive content, it connects wired or wirelessly to your Internet.
There are a lot of other ways to watch movies from the Internet, some free, some devious so I won't get into that part.

 

[Teegate]

Comcast came this morning. As usual the TV was working fine when he arrived. I showed him the video I had of the problems occurring and he agreed it was a signal problem. He went all over the house checking connections and they were mostly good. But he did say some of the frequencies were off so he put in a ticket for a line technician to come out today or tomorrow and check the line at the pole and the amplifier at the next pole down the street.

 

[Teegate]

I had taken the filter off that they put on last week because I felt it was effecting the picture quality. He told me that it was for the new DVR units and I should have left it on. Since she does not have the new unit I told him I saw no reason why she should keep it on. His reply was it stops individuals from outside from getting into the DVD. With her not having the new type DVR the filter is staying off. He also said the cable modem had incoming noise which can effect the TV reception, but he then noted that incoming noise means it is incoming from them and not outgoing from the modem. Again, not her problem but theirs.

 

[ninemileskid]

My experience is that the problem is usually theirs BUT they insist on starting at the downstream end ( your TV or computer) and working backwards. My argument that nothing has changed in my house and all the connections are protected from the elements falls on deaf ears. They have their procedure (unplug your box, wait thirty seconds, plug it back in, etc.) and NOTHING will convince them to waiver from it. I also believe their reputation is so bad they can't clean it up so the next best thing is to change the name from Comcast to Infinity.

 

[46er]

One of my worse dreads is having to call Comcast and after having problems with them off and on for 35 years, I knicked the cable. I kept it for Internet, but kept the basic TV station bundle as it was cheaper to do that than just Internet alone! I put 2 antennas in the attic (didn't want signal reduction from a splitter) and receive excellent HD or stations on 77 channels. I am within 28 miles (as the crow flies) from most philly stations, so your mileage may vary. Probably only about a dozen or so interest me after filtering out the shopping, religious and Hispanic stations. The antennas also provide a few stations that my cable bundle does not and it is a failover if cable stops working. I also have Amazon prime which has its share of decent video to watch and I use chromecast as well at times. Paying for all of the former comcast channels eventually made me feel like going to the grocery store, spending $100 and only eating $20 of the items. I wouldn't do that for groceries so why do it for TV and I am now saving $80/month!
I also recommend and use a Roku on one of the TVs, because it has a lot of built in Video Apps (stations) and unlike chromecast does not require a PC to be on to receive content, it connects wired or wirelessly to your Internet.
There are a lot of other ways to watch movies from the Internet, some free, some devious so I won't get into that part.

Which antenna did you go with and attic or outside mount? I am roughly equal distance from Philly and NY stations, about 55 miles, and looking at Antennas Direct DB8e bundle for an attic mount. The antenna is unique in that it has 2 panels that can be positioned independently; one to NY, the other to Philly.

 

[46er]

My experience is that the problem is usually theirs BUT they insist on starting at the downstream end ( your TV or computer) and working backwards. My argument that nothing has changed in my house and all the connections are protected from the elements falls on deaf ears. They have their procedure (unplug your box, wait thirty seconds, plug it back in, etc.) and NOTHING will convince them to waiver from it. I also believe their reputation is so bad they can't clean it up so the next best thing is to change the name from Comcast to Infinity.

I can't fault their following those procedures, it reduces the chance of each tech doing their own thing with different results, which is the way it used to be. Standard procedures may take a bit longer, but I am all for using them. As far as their reputation goes, they are pretty much a monopoly so they could care less about it. If you find a good tech, get their name and request him or her, you will get better service and try to do it online, not by phone.

 

[ninemileskid]

I'm all for following procedure also, however, the procedure needs to make sense. I'm certainly no expert but considering the issues are usually Comcast's I would think the first step should be testing the signal immediately outside the building. That would tell them which direction to go. Wasted time is wasted money, money which Comcast will not lose, they pass that along to us.

 

[imkms]

Which antenna did you go with and attic or outside mount? I am roughly equal distance from Philly and NY stations, about 55 miles, and looking at Antennas Direct DB8e bundle for an attic mount. The antenna is unique in that it has 2 panels that can be positioned independently; one to NY, the other to Philly.

I used the RCA ANT751 which is a 40 mile rated antenna. I am too far from NY so didn't look at other, longer distance antennas. This is an outdoor antenna, so installing in the attic it should last forever. I got it for $45, which I thought was worth it and it gets excellent reviews (from me as well). 55 miles should be doable for the right matched antenna.

 

[46er]

Thanks. I agree, given that the monthly cost is approaching the size of a car payment, the cost of purchasing and installing is pretty minor, given that it will get you want you want. The new antennas are nothing like the ones I remember. The one I am considering has a 70 mile range and also excellent reviews although it will make the attic look like a NORAD station

 

[Teegate]

I had worked on my cable connection a few weeks ago, and I wanted to have the connection on the side of my house back as Comcast originally had it set up. So I made a replacement jumper today just like theirs and put it back on. Here is the jumper they were using which was causing me all kinds of problems.

And this shows how vigilant they have to be when determining what causes connection problems.