Charlotte, NC - TWC - Page 231

Once again, I had no issues here last night with either House or Chicago Code (both via delayed DVR playback)... and (at least the last 100 laps of) the Bristol race (watched live) was fine on Sunday. Whatever the issue is, the 8640 seems to be immune. I haven't watched enough on the 3260 or 4250 boxes to say one way or another if they have had any problems.

I see that they are trying to impress the new customers with the latest hardware available.

FYI - Here's the response I got from Fox18...

The audio leaving the station is fine. The main audio channel leaving our station and transmitter is the normal English language audio program and it has not been interrupted at any time.

And that is absolutely correct.

I also DVR'ed COPS, using Directv HDTV, no issues...

Well, now that we've gotten a handle on this FOX audio problem (I'm backing up any FOX shows I watch with an OTA recording on my Macbook until they fix this), I have another, worse, issue that's been ongoing for some time.

I get frequent dropouts and freezes across all channels with my SA8300HD. It usually starts out with a few brief studders and dropouts, and within a minute or so escalates to a full blown freeze. This can last as long as 20 or 30 minutes. Then, suddenly, the program will come back on and be fine until its conclusion. It's driving us crazy, as it's affecting half of everything we record. And because we have nearly a terabyte of space with an expansion drive, we record a lot. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it, so it's hard to guess whether it's a hardware/software problem or a sudden weakness in the signal that's causing this, or something else entirely. Any ideas, or is anyone else suffering this same problem?

I've never had an 8300HD (MDN) box, but on the HDC series boxes there are hardware diagnostics pages you can access where you can read the signal level and S/N ratios of the currently tuned QAM channels. Signal levels should be -8dBmV or higher (note the minus sign... higher than -8 means -7, -6 etc.) and S/N should be 34dB or higher. If your blocking/freezing issues are signal related, you should see it in those numbers being too low.

The hardware diagnostics on the newer HDC boxes can be accessed by holding down the power button (on the remote) until the power indicator flashes, then release it and press it again. They can also be accessed by holding down the Enter/Select button on the front panel until the message light blinks, then releasing and pressing Info. Unfortunately, since I don't have a legacy HD/MDN box, I can't promise that these also work on your box, nor can I tell you what specific page the RF signal information is on once you get in there... but it's probably worth trying.

There have been some configuration changes made in both TWC's and WCCB's equipment today that should eliminate this issue. Please let us know if you continue to have any problems at all with the FOX Charlotte stream.

Sure... now I'll probably START having problems.

(Just kidding )

To be honest, that thought did cross my mind Joe..

Cable Box Diagnostic Screen - How To

Cisco
Cable card/SDV - Hold select for 10 seconds and then press down arrow
Full Diagnostics - Hold volume up and info on the front of the box" and it'll pop up

SA - Non OCAP
Hold select for 10 seconds and then press down arrow


SA - OCAP
Cable card/SDV - Hold select for 10 seconds and then press down arrow
Full Diagnostics - Hold volume up and info on the front of the box" and it'll pop up

Samsung
Cable card/SDV - Hold select for 10 seconds and then press down arrow
Full Diagnostics - Hold select for 10 seconds and then press up arrow

That should cover everyone in the Charlotte area.

Rob

What about with the Pioneer box ?

Thanks for the update and appreciate your help!

Regarding these audio problems with Fox, last night I went to watch "Chicago Code" form Mon. night and had no audio at all. Went back to live TV and checked Fox to see if I had sound and it was fine. I then went back to the recording and the audio was fine and I was able to watch the whole episode without and problems. Very strange.....................

Now THAT is a box problem that I (and others reporting in the TWC Navigator thread) have had ever since the ODN 4.0 update. It only happens on rare occasions (I get it about twice a month on average) and is not tied to a specific channel. It can happen after any operation that interrupts the stream (starting recorded playback, FF/REW operation, changing channels, etc) on live or recorded programming.

Next time you have that happen, just hit pause then play to allow the audio stream to re-sync and the audio should come back. When it happens on live programming, I just change channels and it returns.

These issues never occurred on the same boxes with ODN 3.2 or earlier... just since ODN 4.0. However, your's is the first report I've seen of it with
a Samsung box... mine and others is with the 8640.

Good to know, because I had the same experience last night that Bookworm had, when watching "Chicago Code". Would have hated to watch it on my computer for the 2nd straight week.

Since I have that 8300HD running MDN (is that the same thing as the "non OCAP" box that Rob referenced? - I have trouble keeping these abbreviations straight in my head), this sounds like a good diagnostic method except for one thing...

I've never seen this issue (the freezing of a program for 20 or 30 minutes mid-stream) on a live broadcast where I can look at the signal strength in real time. Why? Because we never watch anything live, not even sports. Every time I've experienced this, it's been on a program previously recorded, although at times it may have happened to a program I've been "chasing" (watching an earlier segment from the DVR's buffer while the program is still recording). I think. Hard to remember, exactly.

Basically, I was just wondering if anyone else out there has experienced this problem. Then, if so, we could compare notes and see if a logical explanation bubbles to the surface. 'Cause right now, I got nuthin' but frustration and whenever I get a TWC tech out to look at the signal strength, it's fine. Of course. They have no other explanation, either.

I sure don't want to get rid of my box because, even with the aggravation of TWC's refusal to update the Navigator MDN software (I've discovered workarounds for the bugs and learned to accept truncated program info and the ancient 4x3 GUI), I love my box. And I especially love the 750GB expansion drive that's hooked up to it that gives me the freedom to record whatever I want, whenever I want, and keep it as long as I want. That's all good.

And for those who will miss WCCB Weather Radar D2..

http://www.foxcharlotte.com/news/streaming

If I remember correctly, the TWC multi-room DVRs use MoCa to stream shows between boxes. My router(Apple Time Capsule) is on one side of my house and I want to extend my wireless network. I just tried using an Apple Airport Express as a wireless repeater, but it didn't really work.

It looks like I need to connect the Apple Airport Express via ethernet to extend my wireless network so I figure I can either run ethernet cable through the attic and crawl space or I can buy a few MoCa adapters which use my existing coax.

Does anyone know if MoCa adapters are compatible with the Cisco 8642 multi-room DVRs? I read that they do work with Fios which also uses MoCa for multi-room DVR.

Does anyone have any other ideas besides using MoCa adapters or running ethernet cable?

Look for some HomePlug A/V devices - make sure they're v2.0 or better. Or, check out DD-WRT and buy a wireless router on their supported list. It can be setup to act as a repeater.

Well, I'm trying to watch my recording of "Fringe" from last night and guess what? I have no sound again! I've tried pausing and restarting, stopping completely and choosing "Stop and Save" and then trying to play. I've also just stopped and chose "Restart" and still no sound. This has only happened on these two Fox programs and last weeks NASCAR race also on Fox.

BTW, note in my signature the change from a 3270 to a 3272 which happened about a month ago. I don't know the difference between the two boxes but the 3272 doesn't have PIP either. Why build a two tuner box w/o PIP?

I for one will miss the radar. I used it often during heavy rain to see the intensity and to estimate the timeframe when rain would hit my area. Thanks for the link..

Please, please don't eliminate the Fox weather feed. You can add Me TV, just add an 18-4 channel showing the radar. It's much more useful and accessible than the Inet feed. Is this a $$$ thing for Fox18???

Nope... it's a TWC thing.. they only say they will carry one or the other. We'd gladly continue to provide it to their subscribers for free. Both MeTv and Radar are currently being fed to them via fiber. Gotta keep space all those noisy analog channels we all don;t watch... :>)

It's not just TWC. We had Directv last month and they had already switched to MeTV. There was no 18 radar channel. I can't even pickup the weather radar OTA w/ an antenna. I emailed the station and was told that I could only pick it up over the internet. Wish they wouldn't eliminate it. Why can't they offer it as channel 18-4?

Because there is not enough bandwidth within OTA to add 18-4 due to our carrying ATSC mobile. Which..does have radar in it..and you can get it this way:

http://www.mobile-dtv-viewer.com/

Once it's gone the only channel with a radar left is the awful one that's basically an ad channel for WSOC with a little radar on the side. Really that one is a mess.

Hi all, TWC just installed my 30/5 service with the Ubee DDW3611 modem. As many have posted I had to put the modem in bridge mode using the instructions in this thread, because the installer didn't know how. My question is I can't find a user manual for this modem. I noticed after I put it in bridge mode and it reloaded, that the DS light is now blue instead of green. I don't believe it's causing any issues as I am getting my full 30 down and 4.5 to 5 up. I am just curious as to why it's blue now.

Thanks all.

That's because it is bonding the channels.

Ah so blue for bonded channels, and green for single channel, makes sense, thanks!