Cable Co. claims this was my fault:

[Sandy G]

(Knocks heavily on wood) My Charter Scientific Atlanta hokie box has only had to be replaced once in the 4-5 years I've had it...Guess I'm ahead of the game...But w/summer thunderstorm/power outage season around the corner, we'll see...

[andy]

---

[radiotvnut]

I didn't care for those SA boxes even back in the analog days. They just seemed cheap built and they ran hot. Before Comcast started using SA brand boxes, they were using Jerrold brand converters. Those seemed to be heavier, better built converters. Somewhere, I've got one of those old Jerrold 36 channel converters with the row of mechanical buttons and a three position switch to select which row of channels you wish to choose from.

[kx250rider]

The cable techs are probably told to make everything the customers' fault. And if your TV was making too much heat, what would he say about a plasma? Those belch out more heat than a blast furnace.

Charles

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by zenith2134

I remember when they switched to the Samsungs, the switched outlet feature went away. Makes me wonder how long it is before the F connector is gone as well.

That's too bad. The switched outlet made it easy to turn your TV on and off with your cable remote. I don't think Time Warner (the cable provider in my area) has any plans to replace its digital set-tops any time soon with ones that don't have the switched AC outlet, but that's just a thought I had--they might just do something like that eventually, or perhaps they have already and I don't know it. My cable runs more or less directly to my TV, no cable box (basic service, broadcast channels only); I say more or less because I have an RF modulator and a VCR connected to the TV as well, and the cable line from the wall connects to an input on the modulator. There is a jumper line, I think, from the modulator output to the TV antenna input on the VCR, with the output of the latter connecting to the TV's own antenna port via another cable. Lots of cables behind the set, but it works.

If the manufacturers of cable set-tops eventually do away with one or both F connectors (cable input as well as the output to the TV), how on earth will the boxes connect to the cable and the subscriber's television? A wireless connection from the box to the cable comes to mind; however, the connection from the box to the user's TV could be a bit more of a problem without a connector.

[zenithfan1]

It's already gone on a lot of boxes now. That's the way it was when I had that Directv garbage. I had to use a modulator for all my sets

[matt_s78mn]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I talked to the guy who connected our cable and he said that there are plenty of ancient TV's that people want connected - to which they refuse.

Are cable installers today that stupid or are they just trying to convince people that they need a new TV?

I used to work for a local access studio for a cable company three years ago... Back then I used to talk to the installer guys quite a bit. They always told me I wouldn't believe how many older TVs they ran across. They would never refuse connecting any of them, but they did say that the older TVs caused more noise and interference to be introduced into the cable system. If that was true, it wasn't all that big of a deal because the individual nodes were isolated and the system had a fiber backbone. Also, as of that time three years ago, if you subscribed to analog cable only, they'd give you an analog set-top box if you requested one. Don't know if thats still the case though, as I remember their supply of analog boxes was running pretty low and I'm sure they didn't mind getting rid of them just to clean out the warehouse.

[matt_s78mn]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

If the manufacturers of cable set-tops eventually do away with one or both F connectors (cable input as well as the output to the TV), how on earth will the boxes connect to the cable and the subscriber's television? A wireless connection from the box to the cable comes to mind; however, the connection from the box to the user's TV could be a bit more of a problem without a connector.

I can't imagine the coax input on cable boxes would be going anywhere anytime soon... It'd cost the cable company a boatload of money to change out all their infrastructure and switch to a different delivery method. On some new buildouts though, fiber-to-the-home and IP-based delivery is becoming common.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

(Knocks heavily on wood) My Charter Scientific Atlanta hokie box has only had to be replaced once in the 4-5 years I've had it...Guess I'm ahead of the game...But w/summer thunderstorm/power outage season around the corner, we'll see...

Power outages do cause cable boxes to lose their programming, requiring a reboot in the case of the fancy digital set-tops; I had this happen more than once when I had digital cable, with a fancy-dancy Motorola digital set-top, a few years ago. Got rid of digital, later dropped expanded basic, and went back to analog when the rates went too high; I now have basic cable, no box, and no more trouble with the cable except when on those rare occasions when the headend loses the satellite signal (as sometimes happens with WGN America or the two PBS stations on my cable), or the picture freezes and the sound disappears. The latter sometimes happens during football season; I watch games with a buddy of mine, and it probably drives him nuts when the picture freezes just at a critical moment during a play. We can't hear the sound, either, as when a digital-TV picture freezes (whether the source is OTA or cable doesn't matter), the sound goes as well.

However, I have yet to hear of a cable box (digital or otherwise) being damaged by lightning although it is indeed possible and probably has happened more than once in the past. The cable operator is responsible, of course, for replacing the box if this occurs, but I'm not sure if their liability extends to the subscriber's television as well if the latter is damaged along with the box. I don't think it does. The cable company's responsibility and liability ends at the cable box; they are not permitted to do anything to the subscriber's TV and are not responsible for replacing the latter if it is damaged by anything, even faults with the cable system.

Don't call the cable company and complain about programming or those little messages (crawls) that occasionally scroll across the bottom of your screen; it will get you nowhere fast. I recently called Time-Warner to complain about weather warnings appearing at the bottom of my TV picture; the representative I spoke with told me point-blank that they cannot shut these off, as they are public service messages sent by the TV stations. The cable company has no control over these or any other aspect of the programming of any television station they carry; the cable operator's only job is to provide the signals to subscribers--the cable company is forbidden by law to do anything to the programming, including replacing the noon and nine p.m. (CST) Chicago newscasts on WGN America with some other program in markets other than metropolitan Chicago. Moreover, one of the local TV stations in Cleveland has a continuous crawl across the bottom of the screen (more news, naturally [!]) during their newscasts; the cable company cannot shut this off either, or modify it in any way. In any event, it doesn't matter to me since I don't watch that station for news anyway.

[colortrakker]

Originally Posted by zenith2134

The hardware, IMHO, is a major reason why people are switching to Verizon fiber around here.

You're lucky to have a choice out there. I hear there are political reasons for keeping FiOS out of my town, and they're cahooting with the Dolans (the family dynasty that owns Cablevision) to keep us choice-free.

As for me, I'm soured on cable. Sure the picture's nice and clear, but it looks like VHS on SD channels...and don't start me on that 1997-looking interface for tha cable box...which takes 30 seconds to load the menu and at least 5 seconds just to change channels.

I'd love to cut the cord entirely when I move but we're kinda broadband-impaired here, and cable looks like my only www choice where I'd like to head, so I'm stuck with Cablevision at least for that.

[John Marinello]

Boy, what you got there is a box designed for 21" or smaller sets, and you're
tryin' to drive a 25-incher with it...

[radiotvnut]

The ONLY reason we decided to go with cable again was for the internet. The first time we had cable, they ticked us off, concerning the internet, to the point where we told them to turn it all off. Then, we went with directv for about 10 months until we got tired of paying $70 a month to them. Had to pay to get out of that one; but, it was worth it. Then, we used analog OTA for about a year. Finally, we decided to give Comcast another try. Had it not been for the internet, we would be using DTV converters. We tried to get DSL from the phone company; but, they claim it's not available in my area. That only leaves dial up and comcast.

[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.

[radiotvnut]

How many DTV channels can you get in New Orleans? I imagine you'll put up an outside antenna.

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

How many DTV channels can you get in New Orleans? I imagine you'll put up an outside antenna.

There are eleven stations on digital plus their subchannels plus two low-power stations I rarely pick up. All the transmitters are within 5 1/2 miles of me.

Believe it or not, I erected an outdoor antenna last year after losing DTV signals during a thunderstorm. Well, I still lose DTV during heavy rain. The outdoor antenna is directional and I don't have a rotor, so I really didn't gain anything for my efforts. I'm probably going to take it down soon and use rabbit ears on the set top.