Cable problems in the digital era

[vchimpanzee]

I mostly watch cable but have an antenna as backup.

I am well aware of the problem of losing sound as squares or stripes appear on the screen, or having the picture freeze.

I have one station that almost never does this, though another station wasn't doing it and seems to have started. Last night the solution was backing away from the TV, though it's not like the room where I'm standing between the antenna and the transmitter when I turn the TV on. I was on the other side of the TV!

But how is it that I can sometimes be watching cable and see a less invasive version of the same thing? The sound usually doesn't go out but I occasionally see those squares. One night, though, I kept losing sound for a fraction of a second, something that used to happen a lot with an antenna one one station I've quit watching because it got worse. Then I saw the squares. Just once.

I was under the impression the feed was separate from what goes out to antennas. I remember hearing that cable customers saw porn while those watching with an antenna didn't. And there's one station on my cable system that couldn't possibly be picked up in this area I don't care how high your antenna is.

A more serious problem happened the other night when I watched a PBS show.

The screen kept going black for a second or a fraction of a second, and sometimes I would see green stripes with yellow dividers between them across part of the screen. I also lost sound in these situations. We should expect better.

 

[fortmill]

Most small town cable systems still pick up their "local" stations OTA, the same signal you recieve at home. I'm sure some are still working to get their best signal. Over time, they'll probably drop OTA channels they can no longer recieve adequately, and add others they can now recieve better digitally. In some cases, they'll be able to improve their current reception with better antennas, etc., but things move slowly in some of these small towns. Regarding the one channel which you say could not be picked up OTA at your location, perhaps the cable company is getting via it microwave, OR they could be using the Direct or Dish feed, which many say is illegal, but I disagree. I've seen WBTV on a Time Warner small town system right in your neck of the woods and I'd swear its a Direct TV feed....

 

[DToTheJ]

There's another running thread about cable systems discontinuing analog cable on the next page or two of this forum...

 

[vchimpanzee]

Most small town cable systems still pick up their "local" stations OTA, the same signal you recieve at home. I'm sure some are still working to get their best signal. Over time, they'll probably drop OTA channels they can no longer recieve adequately, and add others they can now recieve better digitally. In some cases, they'll be able to improve their current reception with better antennas, etc., but things move slowly in some of these small towns. Regarding the one channel which you say could not be picked up OTA at your location, perhaps the cable company is getting via it microwave, OR they could be using the Direct or Dish feed, which many say is illegal, but I disagree. I've seen WBTV on a Time Warner small town system right in your neck of the woods and I'd swear its a Direct TV feed....

Correction to my statement the station couldn't possibly be picked up here.

I just looked on Wikpedia and it's 600,000 watts on channel 40. It was low-power as an analog station, and I didn't think they'd change.

But now what about the yellow and green stripes? I've only seen that on cable. I saw it last night in an ad for "House" on Fox.

Oh, about WBTV, which I don't watch any more--it used to always have a problem during "Big Bang Theory". Just that show. It would last a few seconds and I'd have to see the rerun or remember which part got messed up.

WFMY is on my cable system, and even if it wasn't, its digital channel has the best signal of any I watch with an antenna. I can say that having watched it for a total of maybe one hour since Feb. 17, 2009 and not havng ANY problems.

But Channel 36 messed up showing NBC shows that got pre-empted by a Panthers game during "Jeopardy". I TiVo the WCNC broadcasts as a precaution but watch on WFMY. And thanks to ACC basketball, the only CBS shows I watch are on Monday night ... right after "Jeopardy".

 

[tripinva]

If you're referring to WHKY, it has been a full-powered station for years. To my knowledge, it has never been low-powered.

- Trip

 

[fortmill]

If you're referring to WHKY, it has been a full-powered station for years. To my knowledge, it has never been low-powered.

- Trip

I think Chimp was talking about WUVC/40 (digital 38) Fayetteville/Raleigh/Durham (Univision), however, he was mistaken about it being low-powered prior to the digital transition, as I believe it was 5,000,000 watts at about 1600 ft. He might have been thinking of the ION station in Fayetteville on ch 62....

 

[tripinva]

WUVC is at 500 kW on channel 38, not 600 kW on channel 40, which sounds like WHKY.

- Trip

 

[vchimpanzee]

If you're referring to WHKY, it has been a full-powered station for years. To my knowledge, it has never been low-powered.

- Trip

Well, I never picked it up here, let me put it that way.

I remember seeing a map of its range years ago, and it hardly reached beyond Catawba County. I did watch it when I lived there because they actually had programming worth seeing.

WTVI, on the other hand, might as well be low-power. I saw what its power was and I'm amazed they can be seen outside Charlotte. They made an effort in the analog era to be seen outside Charlotte, but I guess they don't care now. Somehow cable has them.

 

[mjlarochelle]

I was in a bar the other night with a bunch of screens showing the same hockey game on digital cable. One particular screen had very heavy pixellation and was almost unwatchable, but the rest of the screens were perfectly fine. Wonder if these problems are related to the cable itself or the digital box?

 

[WPPCProductions]

When I'm tuned in WNET channel 13,Which is digital in my area,I've notice the Video breaks up like a internet stream, Picture breaks up ,sound drops out,seconds later it's ok.other analog channels around channel 13 are ok.I have no idea if Its the signal from Ch13,or comcast receiving equipment flaking out.

 

[dave73]

With my local Comcast service, digital cable on all channels pixellate quite a bit. I don't know if Comcast receives their local channels via satellite or OTA. Regardless, any channel pixellates heavily, due to Comcast refusing to upgrade the cable lines to handle the new services. It also goes out a lot too, which also makes it difficult to keep a internet & phone connection (for those who have phone service with them). Whenever AT&T finishes building out their FiOS services, it'll take market share from my local Comcast office, since Comcast (& predecessors the old AT&T & TCI) doesn't care about their service here. DSL outperforms cable in my neighborhood, since DSL rarely goes out, while cable does.

 

[landtuna]

We have Cox cable where I live and after two years of inconsistent uptime and outages I dumped them in favor of DSL from Qwest. Cable was faster but DSL hasn't been out longer than a total of 20 minutes in the two years I've had it.

 

[dave73]

We have Cox cable where I live and after two years of inconsistent uptime and outages I dumped them in favor of DSL from Qwest. Cable was faster but DSL hasn't been out longer than a total of 20 minutes in the two years I've had it.

What's sad is across the street from me, another Comcast franchise serves that area, and service overall is reliable, that it rarely goes out. While the technicians don't always arrive on time, at least problems do get fixed. The lines have been upgraded at least twice to accomodate internet & phone service, as well as digital cable. Digital cable has been available across the street since 1998 under the old AT&T. It wasn't until Comcast took over that internet & phone service was added. Comcast across the street has been receiving the local stations' either via microwave or satellite. They don't have a rooftop antenna at their site. Where I will eventually move to, Time Warner cable serves that area, and not sure about reliability of cable TV or internet.

 

[kenglish]

Just like analog Cable, Digital Cable stretches across the entire spectrum. If there are any leaks in the system, over-the-air ingress (from a variety of both broadcast and non-broadcast sources) can get in to the system and create problems. You may have not noticed the beats and "swirlies" in the analog picture, but they can wreak havoc on the digital.

Also, bad connections can cause reflections within the cabling itself, which interfere with the proper demodulation of those ones-and-zeroes. So, in the example of the bar, it may have been a loose connector, or a pinched/damaged piece of cable.

 

[crainbebo]

I switched to Verizon FiOS Tuesday. It's very good, and WAAYYYY better than Comcast.

-crainbebo

 

[kenrayc]

I switched to Verizon FiOS Tuesday. It's very good, and WAAYYYY better than Comcast.

-crainbebo

Do they offer all local stations and their sub stations, and all HD stations in HD, This is why I left Satellite and went back to Comcast, Directv and Dish only had the 4 main networks in HD and none of the sub stations.

 

[dave73]

I switched to Verizon FiOS Tuesday. It's very good, and WAAYYYY better than Comcast.

-crainbebo

Do they offer all local stations and their sub stations, and all HD stations in HD, This is why I left Satellite and went back to Comcast, Directv and Dish only had the 4 main networks in HD and none of the sub stations.

Subchannels aren't required to be carried by cable & satellite as part of the must carry (at least not yet). It's up to each cable company to decide if they want to carry subchannels. I don't know the reason for satellite to not carry subchannels, or carry the main channels in HD.
I know with my local Comcast service, they only carry WCIU subchannels: MeTV, MeToo, & FBT (WCIU's original ethnic programming), and that's because WCIU worked out a deal to have those 3 channels carried on my local Comcast. WTTW hasn't worked out a deal to have WTTW Prime carried yet (they have in Chicago). Comcast doesn't carry Ion Life, but does carry Ion TV as part of the must carry. WJYS Hammond/Chicago has WEDE-CA on PSIP 62.2, but that isn't carried either on cable. WGN has LATV, and that isn't carried on cable either.

As for the Chicago TV subchannels, all subchannels are 480i, except for Livewell HD, which is 720p, along with WLS-TV's main channel, which is also 720p. Universal Sports, Livewell HD, Create, V-Me, This TV, Qubo, & Ion Life can be worked out with separate carriage packages, as these channels can easily be added to cable. WTTW has to work with Comcast to have WTTW Prime carried on cable, and that channel is 480i, due to WTTW being 1080i, & WTTW Prime is programmed locally. I don't know about Mhz Worldwide as to how that can be added to cable, as that's separate from WYCC. That channel is 480i, due to most of the programming coming from around the world in 480i. I nearly forgot to mention that if cable does carry subchannels; those channels will be on digital cable, and not regular cable.

As for the stations being in HD on my local cable; that I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if none of the channels are in HD. I'm surprised with my local Comcast carrying TV Polonia & Polskie Radio, as my area is no longer dominated by Polish immigrants. What people in my area that consider themselves Polish are now 2nd, 3rd, & 4th generation Polish born in the USA, and most don't speak Polish at all. Macedonians are the new dominant ethnic group, along with Latin Americans speaking Spanish (at least in my area).

 

[kenrayc]

Comcast Fresno carries KAIL 7.2 RTV, KMPH 26.2 THIS TV, KVPT 18.3 V-ME and 18.2 PBS 2nd channel, KSEE NBC 24 Weather and LATV, KFSN ABC weather now and Livewell, KGPE CBS 47.2 Untamed sports, KGMC 43.2 Azteca.