Cable Outages

On one of my tv's the cable box was digitizing, or pixelating. The cable guy came out to service it and said it was caused by water in the line. On my high def cable box the picture does freeze or jump ahead, but maybe that's normal, wouldn't know really, just got the thing and still trying to figure out all the functions.

Also just to add, my cable box has a message on it that some channels will be blacked out oct 14th for the Canadian elections.

Other anomolies were yesterday I had no radio signal to operate my wireless mouse on my computer, after restarting it came back.

However I don't think it has anything to do with the blossom stuff because I don't believe that will happen.

Ok, now my dish network is out almost completely, only local channels coming in. Can't be weather related, it's sunny, and, yes, hubby climbed up and checked the dish, hasn't been knocked down or anything.

Sunspots maybe?

DirecTv is having problems here in SC and has been for a couple of weeks. A bit of static and freezing but the most annoying aspect is that the sound seems to be a couple of seconds ahead of the picture. Thought it was just our TVs but it's happening around the neighborhood as well.

I live in Tennessee in the Chattanooga area.
I have Comcast internet and cable.I have been having problems with my internet for over a week also.I have never had problems like this before and have had it for several years.A couple of days ago (friday) I had a hard time trying to even stay online.I was getting no signal at all to my modem.
Then it just started working again.?
This has happened many times in the last week or so.
I don't watch much television but haven't noticed much happening with it.

This link from my Cable company discusses in detail the sun outage--listing by day, by the minute, by the channel, by the state. Nothing more interesting than that.

Take a look.

Sun Outage

delius

reply to post by delius


Cool but I live in Ga. and the outages and interference continue and have actually become worse after the 8th.
Just sayin'...

Western NY here and my cable was out for hours Friday night, sort of. The cable internet was fine and actually some channels on the end could come in like the first few low channels and a few at the high end came in but all the rest in the middle were all out, the vast majority. It lasted about 3 or 4 hours, I forget because I was watching DVDs anyway. It was late too, I want to say after midnight before it happend.

Wisconsin here, I have Directtv and things have been fine here. Just turned on my son's tv the other day and a lot of audio interference(static, buzzing) was heard and turning it off and on again did the trick... but that tv is from the 80's so it's probably dying, lol.

I have been having trouble with my internet the last few weeks though, it's been going slower, a lot of timeout errors, and the modem resetting itself. I have ATT... just figure it's them doing something as I clean my cache and things like that.

reply to post by SEEWHATUDO

I have Dish Network and AT&T phone service. Phone is working fine, but Dish network has been losing signal quite often in the last two weeks.

What is a worse problem here is the constant "Power Surges" we have two or three a day at all hours. Then all of the electrical devices have to be reset, and or rebooted..

i live in california and have comcast and the same thing is happening...also isn't it a coincidence that CERN collider is down and the hubble has been shut down...hmmm.

Oregon & Comcast internet and cable tv here. I've had many internet problems which started around April of this year and ended around July. My modem would randomly stop working and shut off around the same time every day, when I would call up Comcast they would say to me that they had been experiencing technical problems with the network and told me that my internet connection should be working. The problem would come and go every few weeks, so would me calling Comcast and asking what the problem was and never really getting a straight answer. It's been fine since around August.

I've just been recently getting a noticeable higher amount of 'poor quality signals' when attempting to watch television as of late.

I live in the southeast. I have Time Warner. About 2 days ago, the signal on several channels went blocky...almost like an AVI file that wasn't buffereing right. It did this for about 5 minutes and then went back clear.

Chicago.
Had problems with Comcast two weeks ago. I work from home (computer consultant) and I absolutely need Internet. I had to work from Panera Bread (free wireless) and local library. It took them a week to fix my internet and cable.
The odd thing was that the connection had been coming back sporadically, I even made a mistake of canceling the appointment - otherwise it would have been 3-4 days only. It is still too much for me...

But, to be honest, it has been working fine ever since. Except maybe some channels had some disturbances (losing sound or picture). Internet has been fine, or at least I haven't noticed anything.

Anyway, I was furious, but there is nothing better on the market...so I am staying with Comcast for now.

I need to make a correction. I have Time Warner, not AT&T. I was thinking about AT&T taking over my old cell phone company. Just so we are getting accurate data. :p

EDIT: T-Mobile bought out SunCom not AT&T. Da* too many company mergers these days!

[edit on 12-10-2008 by mkross1983]

[edit on 12-10-2008 by mkross1983]

I have Comcast for cable and internet, tmobile for phone
My internet keeps running connection errors and my phone has some kind of static.
Earlier today I noticed CNN had the same noise interference that is being talked about on the radio thread.
The same noise you hear when you charge your cell phone in your car and have AM radio on. I am guessing some kind of electrical disturbance from the charger disrupts the radio waves. It sounds just like that lately on my cell phone as well and cable channels have had it intermittently.

reply to post by mkross1983


It's happening here in Palm Springs CA as well. Time Warner. For 12 days i could not get any On Demand channels at all. Repairman came and when he saw Error #32 he had no idea what it was. Unable to find out!!!!!! Replaced cable box and now it is all just weird. When you change chanels the one you go to catches person speaking in pause then takes about 2 seconds for it to release. Also screen just goes black for about ten seconds then pops back on. Today alone the system has just started re-booting ITSELF in the middle of what you are watching.
No new upgrades required...system is screwed up enough as it is.

[edit on 12-10-2008 by alan1111]

Verizon disconnected me for 24 hours and when i called they said they got their payment and i was never disconnected!


I've had trouble watching tv this past week. pictures all broken up and lots of disturbance.

I always have the feeling all my phone calls are 3 way.

Interesting thread. Could it be possible that cabal companies all over just suck?

That being said....SW Louisiana internet is on DSL and it goes out along with the cable for no apparent reason. It just shuts down from anywhere from 5 mins to 3 hours.

I am a field technician for a rather large telco and i can assure you that these outages you are experiencing are normal.

Because the wires that transmit you signal are outside any number of things can happen to them. These lines are buried, strung on poles, and are located near high voltage hydro wires. They are exposed tot he elements and weather 24/7. Most of these lines can be anywhere from 0 to 30 or 40 years old. Also most inside wiring (inside your house or apt)is usually substandard and outdated, especially apartment buildings.

Most of our technicians average anywhere from 25 to 35 repairs a week. We have around 30 technicians in this area and a population of 200 k. If you do the math, our entire crew does around 900 service calls a week. This means that every month around 2% of the population in my city needs a repair done. And this is just from normal wear and tear on the infrastructure. After major storms it is not uncommon for 800 calls a week jump to 1600. The problems caused by storm damage on our lines can sometimes take up to a week to surface sometimes too.

So you see, its quite simple, if there is a problem with the cable tv lines outside somewhere on your block, and you subscribe to digital cable and cable internet, BOTH services will be affected at once. THis is because the line is damaged and is unable to carry a proper signal anymore and needs to be repaired.