Cable Co. claims this was my fault:

[jeyurkon]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

I've gone through at least six Motorola digital cable boxes since the summer of 2007. One cable repairman insisted I did not use good quality coax when I wired the house. I bought unshielded because it was all I could get locally. I replaced the main feed coming in and the line to the den with shielded coax the cable man gave me - no change. This also caused me to run a wire down the side of the house since the jack is under a window and inaccessible with the walls up.

In fact, this computer's DSL modem has been on the unshielded coax and I've never had problem one.

By the end of the year my mother and brother will be in their own house - she's buying a gutted house 300 feet down the street from mine. When they leave, we're shutting off cable TV altogether and going to DTV boxes.

They always start by blaming your inside cable or equipment. I must have spent over a week of vacation trying to get them to get cablemodem working properly. My neighbor gave up on digital cable at that point. I finally found on the FCC site where my local provider had been cited quite a few times for cable leakage. I took a printout of that and a complaint form when I went to their main office. That finally got their attention and they sent someone out to look for cable leakage. There was a really strong emission at the end of my street. When he removed the cover from the directional coupler he received a shower of water.

That gave my cablemodem life and my neighbor was able to get digital cable.

John

[Jeffhs]

I live in eastern Lake County, Ohio, 35 miles east of Cleveland--an area I call "RF never-never land" for TV and ham radio, although my FM broadcast radio reception is great (I consistently get every Cleveland station and a few out-of-market ones clear as a bell and in stereo, just as I did when I lived in the suburbs). I am about 40 miles from the transmitters of the seven Cleveland TV stations, so I am pretty much tethered to cable if I want decent reception. As it is now, the analog signal of channel 3 (the NBC affiliate in Cleveland) did not reach here at all with an antenna; five, eight and the UHF stations (five) were iffy at best, except for the CBS affiliate on channel 19. I hate to think what the situation is or may be today, with digital. If channel 3 didn't reach me in analog, and the other stations were iffy to poor at best, then I don't think OTA digital would be much better.

For Ryan (AUdubon5425): If you live literally in the shadow of every local TV station in New Orleans, you probably have much more signal than you'd ever need, so you should have good luck with DTV boxes and antennas. The only thing I'd watch would be reflections from tall buildings, if there are any such structures near your home; these obstructions used to cause ghosting with analog TV (there was an article in the [now defunct] Electronics Illustrated magazine about 45 years ago on how the construction of the then-new World Trade Center in New York could affect adversely the area's TV and FM reception because of signal relections causing ghosting and other problems) and could create areas in which the DTV signal is nonexistent, while other areas will have an extremely strong signal.

[jr_tech]

Jeff,
Update on Ch 3, From their website:
"July 12, 2009: Channel 3 moves to "all digital" broadcasting on digital channel 17 at 10 a.m. (Previously, the station was broadcasting on digital channel 2.) The station would continue its analog broadcast as the "nightlight" station in Cleveland, broadcasting only transition information through July 26th when the analog transmitter was permenantly shut off"

From the FCC site is a somewhat confusing list of TV stations and construction permits for TV stations in Cleveland.

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?state...&slon2=&size=9

You can click on the call letters to open a great wealth of information on each station... power, antenna height and pattern, projected coverage*, call sign and ownership changes... fun stuff!

*perhaps somewhat optimistic for rabbit ear users.

jr

[jstout66]

My cable company is terrible. (Cox) Awhile back I was having issues with everything. Digital,internet,phone. Even tho I told them it was intermittant, and mainly affected when it was windy or rainy, they came out 5 times, and blamed everything on me untill the 5th call. First-off, the digital box shocked the tech, so he blamed it on my "old" TV. (a 1981 System 3) then blamed it on the VCR. Even tho I brought up a new 13" for them to hook to the box (with the same results). They treated me like crap like I was making all the problems up. It ended up being a small wire outside the house that ran from under the box outside into the basement.
They are also rude and whenever you call for ANYTHING they blame the customer and start off saying it will be a hefty charge if it's inside wire problem. I then inform them "Oh... I pay for your inside maintanence contract, so I guess you'll be right out..."

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Jeff,
Update on Ch 3, From their website:
"July 12, 2009: Channel 3 moves to "all digital" broadcasting on digital channel 17 at 10 a.m. (Previously, the station was broadcasting on digital channel 2.) The station would continue its analog broadcast as the "nightlight" station in Cleveland, broadcasting only transition information through July 26th when the analog transmitter was permenantly shut off"

From the FCC site is a somewhat confusing list of TV stations and construction permits for TV stations in Cleveland.

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?state...&slon2=&size=9

You can click on the call letters to open a great wealth of information on each station... power, antenna height and pattern, projected coverage*, call sign and ownership changes... fun stuff!

*perhaps somewhat optimistic for rabbit ear users.

jr

Someone over at channel three is very confused. The station never broadcast over on channel 17. All I get there is some religious station over in Canton, Ohio. Channel three was never over on channel two either. All I get over on that channel is some station called "WRLM." Channel three has been on channel three since it went on the air sixty years ago, until they ripped out their regular transmitter and started fooling with this "digital" nonsense. Now, the only way I can get the station (and every other channel over in Cleveland) is on cable. It's things like this that make me very sorry I left the Cleveland suburb I grew up in. At least there, my TV reception was half decent with an antenna, and no one needed cable.

Thank you for the link to the FCC's internet page. However, I don't think I would understand any of it -- and I can't see why I need to know any of that information anyway, even if I could understand it.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Someone over at channel three is very confused. The station never broadcast over on channel 17. All I get there is some religious station over in Canton, Ohio. Channel three was never over on channel two either. All I get over on that channel is some station called "WRLM." Channel three has been on channel three since it went on the air sixty years ago, until they ripped out their regular transmitter and started fooling with this "digital" nonsense.

No, they are not confused over at channel 3, the FCC data shows that they HAVE used Ch 2 and are likely NOW using Ch 17 to transmit their signal. Most TV stations actually did change their transmitter frequencies to allow for the digital transition. Since stations had a long history of being identified by a certain channel number, the digital system was designed to allow "virtual channels"... a OTA digital box in Cleveland would receive the former Ch 3 on Ch 17 but would indicate it as Ch 3 on its channel list. The cable companies would also keep it on Ch 3 to avoid confusion. Believe me, and the WKYC website (and the FCC), Ch 3 does not transmit from Cleveland on ch 3 anymore.

The religious station in Canton that was on 17 is now actually transmitting on 39, but the digital boxes will report it as 17, using the transmitted PSIP Information to display 17 as a "virtual channel".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDLI-TV

jr

[Steve D.]

I have Time-Warner cable service here in So. Ca. I was having trouble accessing the on demand service. The service rep. tried all the things he could do from the local office. I re-booted the box and he tried several tricks to restore on demand service. So we scheduled a service call. The service tech said it wasn't the box. Which I suspected. He fixed the problem at the connection going into the building. But...stll changed out the box over my objections. He replaced the heavy duty Motorola all metalbox w/clock and switched/unswitched AC plugs with a piece of crap black plastic box half the size w/ no clock and no AC outlet. Said "He had to do what the service order form requested." I missed that very accurate clock and the AC plug on the old Moto box. Called TW and said I'm on my way over to their office with the crap plastic box and want to exchange it for my old metal box. They did and all is well. I always dred the service call syndrome.

-Steve D.

[Jeffhs]

I do not understand what has happened to television since last June. All I know is that the numbers on my TV dial are all mixed up for some channels since then. I get channel 25, for example, on channel 10, CBS channel 19 on channel 4, the MyNetwork affiliate on channel 43 is on channel six, and so on. The only stations that are on the right numbers anymore are 3, 5 and 8 from Cleveland. I don't know if something messed up the numbers the last time we had a thunderstorm here last summer, or what happened; all I do know is that every channel on my TV other than 3, 5 and 8 don't show up on their right numbers anymore.

This whole business about virtual channels and whatever is extremely confusing to me. As I said in my post, channel three has been on channel three as long as I can remember; the little numbers on my TV screen that show what channel my television is on always say channel 03, not 2, 17, 39, or whatever. (In fact, there is nothing on channel 39 on my cable.) As I also said, the station I do get over on channel 2 is something called "WRLM"--and that's not the NBC network channel in Cleveland. The NBC channel in Cleveland is on channel three and has been since the mid-1950s. I don't know where you get the idea it was, is, whatever, on channel 17, but as I said, the only thing I get over on 17 on my cable is a religious station over in Canton, Ohio.

Oh, if only I could go back to the 1960s, when all we had in Cleveland on television was channels 3, 5 and eight. In the suburb where I grew up, we got those three channels, on their right numbers, just fine. It opened up a can of worms when educational channel 25 went on the air in Cleveland in 1965, as that station's signal just wasn't powerful enough to reach our area.

[radiotvnut]

As far as the cable system here, 5 is CBS, 6 is ABC, and 7 is NBC. It's been that way for 30+ years, as long as there's been cable service here.

As far as OTA, virtual channel 11 is actually broadcasting on RF channel 11. Before the digital switch, the digital RF channel was on, IIRC, 49. When they shut down the analog transmitter, they shut off channel 49 and moved back down to VHF channel 11.

I think virtual 24 is on RF 24

Virtual 30 is actually on RF 31

Virtual 14 (PBS) is on, IIRC, RF 44.

Our CW affiliate, which is OTA 11.2, is on channel 8 on the cable. The affiliate actually goes by "Meridian's CW 8"

[jr_tech]

Jeff,
It is all about "branding". Ch 3 has been known and recognized by that "brand name" for many years, and even though they don't transmit on that frequency any more, they have kept that identifier as their "brand name". The cable company has also chosen to continue to distribute the channel on Ch 3, so that is where it shows up on your set. The illusion is complete.
Since you are a ham, you likely know that one does not "mess with" the FCC... here is a link to the info on the FCC website, showing the former Ch 3 using Ch 2 and Ch 17.

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=73195

http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws....ion_id=1314700

hope this helps,
jr

[andy]

---

[Jeffhs]

Please explain to me in words I can understand (not technical jargon) why my TV channels are all mixed up on my TV dial. As I said, I get three five and eight on their right numbers, but the other stations are mixed up terribly -- PBS 25 is on 10, MyTV 43 is on 6, CBS 19 is on 4, and so on. The only other station that comes in on its right number is the ION station on channel 23. I don't know if this is all because a thunderstorm, power surge or whatever damaged the on-screen channel dial on my TV or if the cable company is trying to confuse its subscribers to death. I cannot afford a new TV. How do I tell now where the stations are?

BTW, what on earth is going on with CBS? All I get on the CBS channel here is basketball all day and all night, except between six and seven when the news is on--sometimes. If the game slops over past six p.m. EST, I lose the evening news.

If I were to give up my cable and put up an antenna with a rotor, could I get the CBS network without the basketball games? I don't care what city the station comes from -- in this area, Erie, Pennsylvania, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, Indiana -- whatever. I just want my CBS service back. If this is for any reason not possible, when will CBS be back on its regular schedule? For that matter, why weren't the basketball games put on one of the sports channels, rather than hogging CBS for goodness knows how long? I saw the same nonsense going on with NBC when it dropped all its programming for the 2000 Olympics in a place called Vancouver, wherever that is. That nonsense lasted two weeks and almost drove me nuts.
Why aren't these sporting events put on channels intended to be sports channels, such as ESPN? I don't think this is fair to people like myself who aren't interested in sports; as a matter of fact, I think the news is much more important than sports any day of the year.

[Sandy G]

You, sir, are a HEATHEN, & a possibly dangerous HERETIC... Not wanting to watch a bunch of semi-Neanderthals bat, run, or dribble a ball of some sort up 'n' down a field or a large room, or in the case of the mega-event named after a watery beer, watching idiots sweep the floor for an oddly-shaped river slick ?!? Gasp ! Horrors ! What are you, some kind of gawdam Communist or something ?!? You're sposed to LOVE these pointless displays of machismo, & spend yrself silly buying the worthless crapola that is hawked during these endless contests...

[jr_tech]

"Please explain to me in words I can understand (not technical jargon) why my TV channels are all mixed up on my TV dial."

What is the "jargon" that you don't understand? Perhaps I can provide some definitions.

"BTW, what on earth is going on with CBS? All I get on the CBS channel here is basketball all day and all night"

I am not a sports fan either, but I think this is called "March Madness" which seems to be playoff games. I see the same stuff on my CBS channel as well, so I suspect that looking for another CBS affiliate would not help. This will be over fairly soon

By the way, I looked up WRLM, the station that appears on Ch 2 on your cable system, and it is actually transmitted on Ch 47 from Canton OH. It may be using its former analog channel number (Ch 67) in its "brand name".

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=43870

jr

[3Guncolor]

Hard to make everybody happy don't call the cable company CBS is playing what people want to watch and they want to broadcast. Call them if you don't like what they are broadcasting.