Local channels on cable

[pinkfloyd4ever]

hope this is in the right posting

I have this Comcast-ic problem. For whatever reason, my local channels thru the cable provider have become more fuzzy/wavey lately on my TV. Any other cable channel comes in crystal clear. Is this because my TV isn't high def? The TV is about 5 years old, RCA. I have tried 3 different co-ax cords and still the same.

Thanks

[delcecchi]

bad signal on low bands is my guess. The channels come in chunks

[Ralph Wiggum]

hope this is in the right posting

I have this Comcast-ic problem. For whatever reason, my local channels thru the cable provider have become more fuzzy/wavey lately on my TV. Any other cable channel comes in crystal clear. Is this because my TV isn't high def? The TV is about 5 years old, RCA. I have tried 3 different co-ax cords and still the same.

Thanks

We're having the exact same problem! Good to hear it's not just my place. I plan on calling them if it doesn't improve today, but I hate dealing with them.

[jwhjr]

I have the issue only with channel 4, but its the same issue.

[morpho]

its ghosting probably the most common problem that will be solved with this digital conversion

basicly the over the air signal is getting into the cable signal and what you are seeing is the time difference of them.

make sure all your cables are tight on the back of your sets boxes and vcr's and ditch any push on or cables with those rubber boots on them

if its on all the TV's its probably outside and if you have aerial drops you can probably blame the squirrels

if you have under ground you can probably blame the areiator guy

[DTro]

I could've swore a saw a crawl at the bottom of the screen last night saying that some local stations were going to be powering down there signal in preperation for the analog/digital switchover.

Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

[pinkfloyd4ever]

I've checked all the cords from where they run in from the outside and into the splitters and out. I unhooked each room so that just my living room got the direct feed. It stunk last night trying to watch 24 and the picture was just junk.

[eurolarva]

Kind of a pain but if you have a small TV go outside to your cable box and disconnect the line going into your cable box and plug that straight to your TV. If the pic is still fuzzy it is a comcast issue. I had to do this to prove that the five tvs in my house were not loading down the signal. They found the problem to be between my box and the box in the front yard. If you dont prove it to them it dont get fixed.

[Powerstroke]

Make sure you don't have your signalk running through any other cords or AV equipment like the VCR or a video game system with a coax connection. My TV gets poor cable signal when its hooked up through the video game cables.

[lotsofish]

Mopho is exactly right. It's the over the air signal mixing with the cable signal. The lower channels come across at the same frequency on cable as they do over the air.

If you are seeing this on every TV, it's something gone wrong with the cable outside, where the insulation has been cut or broken down and allowing the wire itself act like an antenna.

Call the cable company. They don't like to come out and fix this stuff because they don't get paid for it, but keep on them and they will get out there and fix it.

After Feb. when the regular analog over the air channels stop broadcasting, you won't have this problem anymore.

[pinkfloyd4ever]

I hear ya, I wired it so the signal comes directly from outside to the TV and it is still fuzzy, nothing else attached to the TV, guess just wait til feb.

[morpho]

I hear ya, I wired it so the signal comes directly from outside to the TV and it is still fuzzy, nothing else attached to the TV, guess just wait til feb.

no,

call 612-522-2000 and have a trouble ticket set up no big deal they'll come out and fix you up.. I've done too much work in the mpls area to let people bash service and or have poor service. There is no reason to have a poor signal your paying perfectly good money for. It could be as simple as a loose connector at the tap ( temp change + road vibration does that ) to a squirrel chewed, watered out drop heck it could be mouse/rabbit chew on the premise wiring of the house. All in all at the end it needs to be fixed.

love,

A old twc service tech who has done too many drop replacements.

p.s. please kill squirrels...

[pinkfloyd4ever]

alrighty, I'll give them a call

[federline]

Very common with cable TV, same thing happened to us twice, in two different residences and locales. Was fixed first time, traced to rusted coax connectors. Couldn't fix it the second time, and they didn't care. Got satellite, never a problem since, except those pesky heavy snowfalls. But not having to talk to a cable company - priceless. Do all these ppl go to the same charm school, what gives???

[zamboni]

I was once told by my cable company "local" stations they have even they get via free air. Cable stations (ESPN, MTV, etc) they get in via a big dish.

[morpho]

I was once told by my cable company "local" stations they have even they get via free air. Cable stations (ESPN, MTV, etc) they get in via a big dish.

yes and no to both. most transport is done by fiber these days. a few local tv stations don't have fiber connectivity so they used tower mounted uhf/vhf antennas to pull in the signal. same goes with the others the sat dishes are mostly backup now as the bandwidth for all the stations hd etc far exceeds the satellites capacity. and they have 10-20 large dishes hidden around. timewarner and at&t are pretty good at disguising there head ends if you know what your looking for you'll find it but if you don't you'll drive by and never know ( silly post 9/11)

also satellite tv is no different...

[Ralph Wiggum]

To bring this back on topic, Comcast finally came out on Friday. The guy replaced my aerial line from the pole to the house and that cleaned it up.

[PierBridge]

To bring this back on topic, Comcast finally came out on Friday. The guy replaced my aerial line from the pole to the house and that cleaned it up.

Thats good News......now get ready for ANOTHER ComCrap price increase in the near future...DOAH!

[Ralph Wiggum]

Originally Posted By: Ralph Wiggum

To bring this back on topic, Comcast finally came out on Friday. The guy replaced my aerial line from the pole to the house and that cleaned it up.

Thats good News......now get ready for ANOTHER ComCrap price increase in the near future...DOAH!

This was the temporary fix till I get the DirecTV hooked up. Couldn't handle it for a few more weeks