Ok, I just got a new Panasonic Plasma and for the first time, I have hooked up a Comcast Box with HD/DVR. Everything for the most part looked great. All HD channels looked fantastic except for the local HD broadcasts. I contacted Comcast and told them that this was a problem and they sent a refresh signal to my house 3 separate times over the weekend to clean this up. Finally they told me that my Box was corrupted and to get a new one.

I exchanged boxes today and hooked up everything and waited for it to boot and sure enough...the local channels are awful. Streaky, pixalated, skipping frames. You name it. Now I'm not sure what to do...I have everything else looking great but the big channels...CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX all look terrible.

How is this possible? I do have 2 TVs in the house split off of a cable splitter. Would this reduce the signal bad enough on just the local HD broadcasts? Here's your chance to help a dumb guy out. Any help would be appreciated.

Ok, I just got a new Panasonic Plasma and for the first time, I have hooked up a Comcast Box with HD/DVR. Everything for the most part looked great. All HD channels looked fantastic except for the local HD broadcasts. I contacted Comcast and told them that this was a problem and they sent a refresh signal to my house 3 separate times over the weekend to clean this up. Finally they told me that my Box was corrupted and to get a new one.

I exchanged boxes today and hooked up everything and waited for it to boot and sure enough...the local channels are awful. Streaky, pixalated, skipping frames. You name it. Now I'm not sure what to do...I have everything else looking great but the big channels...CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX all look terrible.

How is this possible? I do have 2 TVs in the house split off of a cable splitter. Would this reduce the signal bad enough on just the local HD broadcasts? Here's your chance to help a dumb guy out. Any help would be appreciated.
I'd have them send a tech out so he can see it with his own eyes. Anything short of that is akin to calling the mechanic on the phone and saying (my car is making a noise that sounds like this. how do I fix it?" Other than a bad STB (yes, it is possible to get 2 bad STBs in a row), I don't know why local HD channels only would be affected.

One thing you could do would be to run the cable directly from the wall to your TV set. Have it do a channel scan (make sure it includes digital channels), and see what happens. It is entirely possible that your limited basic package (which includes HD locals) is in the clear and you can watch them without an STB. If they are fine that way, you know the problem is related to the box.

I'm hesitant to call out a tech. Right now I'm getting some bonus channels and if they "refresh" the box, I'll lose those. Based upon my past experience this weekend...they zapped my bonus channels and I still had the same problem with the local channels not coming in.

I'll try the channel scan and see what happens.

Thanks for the help. I found the problem. I had ran the Coax from the wall into a VCR then into my STB. Once I disconnected the VCR and then connected straight into the wall, all the local channels cleared up.

Told you I was a dumb guy!

Thanks for the help. I found the problem. I had ran the Coax from the wall into a VCR then into my STB. Once I disconnected the VCR and then connected straight into the wall, all the local channels cleared up.

Told you I was a dumb guy!

Good job on the toubleshoot.

This is a commonly overlooked problem. Gone are the days of all analog where this didnt matter as much but now it does. The most failsafe way to look at it is this: the only hardware that should be between the outside and your set top box on top of your TV is hardware installed by the cable company. Do not use those goofy surge protectors with the coax in/out, no VCR's, no RF converters, nothing. It should be all cable company hardware (splitters/amps/whatnot) and nothing else from the outside all the way to the box. Any other random hardware is just cause to pollute the digital signal and knock out certain frequencies. If you need to add things like VCR's or whatever, they should always be on the output of the box.

Your bonus channels will disapear, in due time. Most systems send out boxes wide open, keeps phone traffic down.

Good job on the toubleshoot.

This is a commonly overlooked problem. Gone are the days of all analog where this didnt matter as much but now it does. The most failsafe way to look at it is this: the only hardware that should be between the outside and your set top box on top of your TV is hardware installed by the cable company. Do not use those goofy surge protectors with the coax in/out, no VCR's, no RF converters, nothing. It should be all cable company hardware (splitters/amps/whatnot) and nothing else from the outside all the way to the box. Any other random hardware is just cause to pollute the digital signal and knock out certain frequencies. If you need to add things like VCR's or whatever, they should always be on the output of the box.

Just so I'm clear on this (sorry in advance for the dumb question)...do NOT hook up the cable to one of those Monster power strips? Supposedly they filter out "noise" or whatever...or so they told us when we bought it. (I know, waste of $$, but we were still newbies to all this back when we got it.)

Thanks,
DGK

Just so I'm clear on this (sorry in advance for the dumb question)...do NOT hook up the cable to one of those Monster power strips? Supposedly they filter out "noise" or whatever...or so they told us when we bought it. (I know, waste of $$, but we were still newbies to all this back when we got it.)

Thanks,
DGK

Most definitely do not. They cause many more problems than they resolve. Digital is, in its simplest, really just a set of 1's and 0's streaming in formation and carrying data for the box to create the picture.

For example this is your picture ----> 11101010111100

With digital, issues with the line will impair that formation and cause some of the instructions to fall out of formation. The damage is already done so a surge protector at the last connection point cannot do anything to repair that formation. In fact, it will only serve to impair it further. For example, if a 1 is supposed to be before a 0 for instance but line issues caused the 1 to drop out, the surge protector is just a dumb passive device and will do nothing to find that 1 and put it back in order. It is just sales fluff for digital TV's

If the cant sell you on noise, they will sell you on the fact that it serves as a ground for the cable to your TV. Your cable is grounded at the side of the house already so even that is unnecessary and is creating a double ground - another possibility for problems.

For analog on the other hand, those surge protectors can work well to filter out garbage. With digital, they are junk and cause many more problems than I have ever seen then resolve.

Take it from a cable guy ;)

Most definitely do not. They cause many more problems than they resolve. Digital is, in its simplest, really just a set of 1's and 0's streaming in formation and carrying data for the box to create the picture.

For example this is your picture ----> 11101010111100

With digital, issues with the line will impair that formation and cause some of the instructions to fall out of formation. The damage is already done so a surge protector at the last connection point cannot do anything to repair that formation. In fact, it will only serve to impair it further. For example, if a 1 is supposed to be before a 0 for instance but line issues caused the 1 to drop out, the surge protector is just a dumb passive device and will do nothing to find that 1 and put it back in order. It is just sales fluff for digital TV's

If the cant sell you on noise, they will sell you on the fact that it serves as a ground for the cable to your TV. Your cable is grounded at the side of the house already so even that is unnecessary and is creating a double ground - another possibility for problems.

For analog on the other hand, those surge protectors can work well to filter out garbage. With digital, they are junk and cause many more problems than I have ever seen then resolve.

Take it from a cable guy ;)

Thanks, GoDucks!! We do have digital cable, not analog, so other than making a great power strip to plug things into, I wonder how much else it's really doing? (It's a Monster brand that we got a deal on when we bought the HDTV.)

So...I'm thinking that might be the problem with some of the HD channels? We get some pixelation and dropping of sound with a couple of the channels sometimes, more so especially at night for some reason. I'm going to try disconnecting the cable and connecting it up the way you suggested and see if that helps.

DGK