[JTFX6552]

I'm in suburban Philadelphia, West Chester, PA. Using a 5100 from Comcast for HD.


A few months ago , intermittantly my HD channels would occasionally go out completely, sometimes pixelate, etc. About two weeks ago it got to the point that the channels are unwatchable. Most of the time, they do not come in at all.


I call comcast who sends out a tech yesterday. He changes out the box, checks all my levels, tells me everything looks good and says he can't stay to work on it more, he'll come back Saturday to work on it some more.


He came out today, did some more checking outside, inside. Found nothing. Comcast remotely reset the box both days. Today he left saying maybe when the box finishes downloading it will work, but he suspects the problem is further up the network.


I call Comcast and ask when they will check out the system and fix the problem.


They want to send another tech to my house? I say the problem isn't in my house. They say if six of my neighbors call they will send someone out? I don't think 6 of my neighbors have HD. I ask for a supervisor. After about an hour on hold, they say they will call me back. Did I mention I have 30 people coming here tommorow to wath the Super Bowl in HD!!


Anyway, I call some of neighbors, and find out my next door neighbor has a comcast HD set up. In our neighborhood, the utilites are under ground with a plastic cable tower between every two houses. His house and mine are on the same tower. He is having the same problem!


Right now I am waiting for Comcast to call me back.


I mean WTF, is that their plan when a tech doesn't fix something, to leave and never come back? They have no system of getting a higher level tech to check the network upstream?


What to do for my party? Supposedly indoor antenna's here won't pick up OTA. I hate to buy a reciever for one day, but, if I wouldn't have to climb up on the roof in the snow, maybe I would.


I have a dual LNB Direct TV dish mounted and aimed with a cable to my HT set-up. Maybe I should ditch Comcast for a while? I gather the HD Dish is a 3 LNB reciever? I guess I 'd have to strap a new dish to the old mount and run two more cables? That seems like a pia.


Any thoughts, ideas or comiseration appreciated.


JT

 

[Ratman]

They don't care. Stop feeding the hog!

 

[jdspencer]

It has been reported that the CBS-HD feeds are coming from the 101 sat. So you shouldn't need the multisat dish, just a DirecTV HD receiver. And, of course, be eligible to receive it.

 

[DDisney]

Quote:

Originally posted by JTFX6552 I'm in suburban Philadelphia, West Chester, PA. Using a 5100 from Comcast for HD. A few months ago , intermittantly my HD channels would occasionally go out completely, sometimes pixelate, etc. About two weeks ago it got to the point that the channels are unwatchable. Most of the time, they do not come in at all. I call comcast who sends out a tech yesterday. He changes out the box, checks all my levels, tells me everything looks good and says he can't stay to work on it more, he'll come back Saturday to work on it some more. He came out today, did some more checking outside, inside. Found nothing. Comcast remotely reset the box both days. Today he left saying maybe when the box finishes downloading it will work, but he suspects the problem is further up the network. What to do for my party? Supposedly indoor antenna's here won't pick up OTA. I hate to buy a reciever for one day, but, if I wouldn't have to climb up on the roof in the snow, maybe I would. Any thoughts, ideas or comiseration appreciated. JT

Here's a thought. Have you checked your signal strength on the problem channels? Go to one of those channels and simply press Power then OK within 2 seconds to get to the diagnostics menu. Find the OOB and Inband status menus and use your arrow keys to access. Observe the readings. You should see Good for SNR/AGC readings. If the uncorrectable error counts are high (>1k) this could be a signal strength issue, as well as readings of Fair or Poor. This can be caused by many things, including splitters prior to the feed into your box, routing the cable through a surge protector or similar issues.


If the cable is split, try to remove the splitter before it feeds the box. Also, there can be tweaking of the signal at the street or in the neighborhood. You need to stay on top of Comcast and keep calling until they fix it. I have also heard that cold weather can actually make your signal too strong in some areas which is also a problem for the HD channels.