Cable Co. claims this was my fault:

[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

[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

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[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..."

[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"

[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.

[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

[matt_s78mn]

Originally Posted by 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'll try to explain this as easily as I can... Traditionally, when cable channel lineups were put together, cable companies had several things to consider. First off, consider that in the days before DTV, for local broadcast channels that broadcast on analog VHF channels (channels 2-13 over the air) in a local market being served by a cable company. The cable company will often put those particular channels on cable on different channel number assignments than what is broadcast over the air. A big reason for this was to prevent interference from the over the air signal bleeding into the cable system and causing interference to the cable channel. In areas where that particular broadcast channel's transmitter is nearby, the cable companies will often leave that channel blank. For example the local cable company where I live does not have anything on cable channel 8 even though we have a local CBS station that broadcasts on 8. The cable company opted to put them on cable channel 7 instead. Cable companies often follow channel placement guidelines though. For instance news channels like Fox News, CNN, Headline News, etc. like to be grouped together, sports channels like FSN, ESPN, OLN, etc. also like to be grouped together. This makes it easier for the cable viewer when they are channel surfing. When the cable companies sign contracts with these program providers, that is when it is decided what cable channel they will be located on.

Ok, now that I've explained the 2-13 cable channels/broadcast channels, take note that the frequency allotments for channels 2-13 on cable are exactly the same as they are for broadcast TV... that explains why you can take an older TV with rotary tuners, plug cable tv into it and you will be able to receive whatever cable channels are on cable 2 through 13 on the VHF tuner of the TV. This was done because in the very early days of cable, there wern't many channels, and there were no cable boxes... people just plugged the cable into their TV and used the TV's tuner. Obviously though, more cable channels came into existance there was a need to add more channels to cable. For over the air broadcasting, there is a big gap of frequency spectrum between VHF and UHF channels, but on cable there is no gap. Channel 14, 15, etc. continue from 13 in the same manner. Cable can do this because it is a closed system, meaning that signals are not intended to escape from the cable, and the cable system uses shielded coax cable and so is therefore protected from interference from outside sources.

Anyway, that being said, the cable companies will take the UHF broadcast channels and will ad them to their cable lineup, sometimes using the same channel number as the over the air signal, and sometimes not... there is no specific rule on this. But, as another post has explained, the cable company will set up "tiers of service" - meaning channels are grouped together that are intended to be sold as certain packages. With analog basic cable, this basically means that when a customer subscribes to basic cable service, the cable company can put a special blocking filter on the line that drops to your house that blocks out all channels above a specific point.

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

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?

You may have noticed this all the sudden because perhaps your cable company needed to shuffle channels around for some particular reason... usually because of contracts with the programming providers. However they should have notified you through the mail or from a bill insert or something like that - if they didn't, well shame on them that's bad customer service.

You have a couple options for discovering where the channels are now... You could go to a website that has channel listings for your area and just print that off and keep it near the tv. (one such example would be www.tvguide.com) You could contact your cable company and ask them for a channel lineup card. Or if your local newspaper publishes a TV Week or similar insert, just grab that to look at the channel lineup.

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

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.

No, all CBS affiliates are carrying the games as they are a national feed on the CBS Network. Are you not familiar with March Madness? It's just a basketball tournament and will be over before too long. Also, you should realize that not every single household in the U.S. has cable or satellite... believe it or not there are people out there who still rely on an antenna for over-the-air TV reception, and maybe they like sports. The TV networks do the best they can to cover what they think the viewer wants, but obviously they can't satisfy everyone all the time.