I am having issues with my digital cable. I recently switched to a new provider who rewired my house upgrading from the old coax cable.

Anyway... my problem is... sometimes when watching TV the audio will cut out, other times the image will shudder or both. When I record something on the provided DVR these problems seem worse. Watching a recorded show sometimes I run into this stuff every 20 seconds. They have sent a serviceman 5 times trying to correct the problem and it continues. He has replaced the DVR. He then blamed it on my tuner/receiver I run my equipment through so I removed it leaving the DVR hooked to the TV to rule that out. They have called the office and changed settings but still nothing works.

My wife and I stumbled onto something last night as I was messing with our TV stand. I went to vacuum up a mess and noticed that the image on the TV froze when I turned on the vacuum. When I turned off the vacuum the image remained frozen (this is our TV with the DVR). My wife was in another room watching another TV and the image stopped however the show resumed when I shut off the vacuum unlike the TV connected to the DVR. One thing I need to mention is the vacuum was plugged into a outlet that is on the same circuit as the TV, DVR and 2 other boxes provided by the cable company. I am not sure what the 2 boxes are called. They seem to serve as a central hub which has wires going to all the other TV's in the house.

Now the service man says it is our house electrical system that is the problem. I doubt it... I think he is grasping at straws at this point. I wish they would send a different serviceman.

I am not much of a electronics / electrical troubleshooter.... any help out there?

I would suspect signal strength.
I have been having problems comcast can't resolve and I know fluctuating strength is at least part of it.
I have suspected voltage may be part of the issue, but it is definitely not all of it.

My box just erased everything.
I will be dropping comcast and using netlix until I can get my C-band back up.

DVRs are very hungry for signal in my experience.

Just to be clear, you're saying that your DVR is cutting off the sound, when there is a power-spike on the electrical circuit. That sure does sound like a problem with your electrical system. I had similar problems, and so I got a pretty strong UPS which effectively acts as a power conditioner.

Just to be clear, you're saying that your DVR is cutting off the sound, when there is a power-spike on the electrical circuit. That sure does sound like a problem with your electrical system. I had similar problems, and so I got a pretty strong UPS which effectively acts as a power conditioner.

I just noticed the screen freezing when the vacuum was ran. We have ran into the audio / video intermittent stopping and starting even without anything something causing a high draw on the same electrical circuit. Although....... my 500w powered 12" sub is on the same circuit but the shows we were watching but didn't have any audio that was making the sub go wild or anything.

DVRs are very different from sub-woofers. :shrug:

Yeah, a sub is pretty robust, whereas a DVR is kind of a sensitive piece of equipment.

It really does sound like a power conditioning problem.

How old is your house?

DVRs are very different from sub-woofers. :shrug:

I guess I was trying to point out that my audio/video has problems not just when I run the vacuum.... I am just throwing out ideas that may be related to my electrical system.

Since my powered sub is connected to the same electrical circuit as the rest of my system components including the DVR, Modem, Splitter I just thought that maybe when the sub hits and draws power that it may be messing up my audio/video somehow.

I don't know... I guess I am grasping also.

I appreciate the help... I appologize in advance as I am probably not clarifying my symptoms or possible causes very well.

How old is your house?


I am not exactly sure... I am guessing 50 years old maybe? I do know it has 100 amp service.

I am not exactly sure... I am guessing 50 years old maybe? I do know it has 100 amp service.

I had a feeling that was what you would say. I bet you still have the old aluminum wire in there? Or has the house been re-wired with copper? Do your outlets 3 prong with the ground or the old 2 prong?

My grandparents house had the same problems, old farm house. We eventually re-wired with a new panel and 200 amp service, and that solved most of the problems. But the house was still buggy, we were thinking, and don't laugh, but ghosts.

Mike

I had a feeling that was what you would say. I bet you still have the old aluminum wire in there? Or has the house been re-wired with copper? Do your outlets 3 prong with the ground or the old 2 prong?

My grandparents house had the same problems, old farm house. We eventually re-wired with a new panel and 200 amp service, and that solved most of the problems. But the house was still buggy, we were thinking, and don't laugh, but ghosts.

Mike

Ha!!..... sorry I had to laugh

I remember looking in my pannel a couple times.... I believe it is all copper. Yes... everything is 3 prong.

Need to add some things...

I forgot to mention that my original DVR actually locked up at one point. It got stuck on one channel and we couldn't change channels, the volume, access the menu or anything either with the remote or the box buttons. The DVR was replaced with a new one by the cable company.

Forward to last night..... same thing happened again. The cable guys showed up today and again replaced the DVR so now I am on my 3rd one.

The cable guy said he was going to change our tap (???) back at there office tomorrow.

Also know that I have switched companies roughly 4 months ago. The previous company (charter) had digital cable hooked to a DVR and we didn't have these issues.

bump for more ideas

Some problems are software issues with the company.
I am certain the loss of material I just had was a software issue.
The erase in 14 days option got reset from Don't erase.
The boxes started not rebooting on their own after a software change too.
Sometimes they lock up when in rest mode and have to be rebooted to start.

I need someone who can pull the material off the drive.
Any ideas?

it sounds like a bad DVR. making sure your signal is clean hitting the DVR is a must. Try swapping the DVR first.

we are on our 3rd one.

Have you put your DVR behind a power conditioner, yet?

Have you tried repeating the vacuum test several times to insure that every time the same results? Also try the vacuum plugged into an outlet that is on the other "leg" i.e., go to your circuit breaker and find a circuit that is on the other row of breakers. If the repeating test has same results, I'd suspect a power problem either drop or noise. In that case a power conditioner/voltage regulator like the APC H15 might help.

Have you put your DVR behind a power conditioner, yet?

Yes... A monster power unit.... didn't help

Have you tried repeating the vacuum test several times to insure that every time the same results? Also try the vacuum plugged into an outlet that is on the other "leg" i.e., go to your circuit breaker and find a circuit that is on the other row of breakers. If the repeating test has same results, I'd suspect a power problem either drop or noise. In that case a power conditioner/voltage regulator like the APC H15 might help.

Tried the vacuum several times... didn't do it every time. The cable company moved the modem to a different electrical circuit... now the vacuum doesn't cause any problems.... however.... the audio problem when recording on the DVR remains.