I AM CURSED..........RANDOM GRIPING....NEED TO FIND A TV

[Bretsky]

I come home Wednesday night and my wife indicates that the dam cable is out. Logic dictates me to ask her what Charter said, and she lets me know she hasn't called yet.

So I can them at about 8:30; their support staff nothing less than moronic IMO. They tell me to shut off the cable box; I tell them I already did. They ask me to do it again and leave it powered off for 15 minutes.

At that point I think they are just trying to get me off the phone.

It doesn't work.

I call them back at around 9:30; they ask me if I powered off the dam cable box. They tell me they are sending a signal. I call them back at 10; it hasn't worked yet. They tell me it often takes an hour and assured me it'd be working in the morning. I tell them I think the cable box is bad and want it fixed; they assure me it's fine.

I get up and race off to work; come home Thursday night to watch TV. Frickin cable still not working. Called the clowns again; they asked me to do what we did Wednesday. Then indicated they'd have to schedule a service technician.

I was afraid to ask, but in a slightly angered mode, I said "HOW SOON"

They said Tuesday. :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad:

No access to the Tube on Saturday to watch the Badge
No home access to the Tube on Sunday to watch the NFL

I'm pissed.

I see myself having the shakes Sunday morning as I am thinking about pre-games and the NFL Sunday............................................ ..........................................as I'm cussing out the Charter.

I hate the Charter.

[MJZiggy]

The good news is that it's a bye week and you won't be missing the Pack...and you can watch the pregame stuff on the web. I assume you've tried disconnecting and reconnecting the cables and stuff...I'd invite you over to my place to watch, but well, you know.

[retailguy]

I hate the Charter.

I have a solution.... Directv.


You're welcome.

[Zool]

Im going to assume you bypassed the cable box and plugged the co-ax directly into the tv? You wont get all the channels obviously, but some is better than none right?

[KYPack]

I hate the Charter.

I have a solution.... Directv.


You're welcome.

Yeah.

Then he'll lose the reception during thunder storms.

[pittstang5]

I hate the Charter.

I have a solution.... Directv.


You're welcome.

Yeah.

Then he'll lose the reception during thunder storms.

LOL....Nice to know that I'm not the only one. I'm almost to the point where I may go back to cable, but I don't think the cable provider around here offers the NFL ticket. The ticket is my only way to see the Pack.

[Fosco33]

I hate the Charter.

I have a solution.... Directv.


You're welcome.

Yeah.

Then he'll lose the reception during thunder storms.

Another solution - move to a place that doesn't have thunder storms :lol:

I've had DirecTV for years w/o a single interruption.

When I had Charter at UW, we were consistently screwed over - to the point where I'd take their stupid High Speed Internet Modem to their office and laugh as they tried to make it work at their site - it was the quickest way to get new equipment and bypass their 'tech service' BS.

[Bretsky]

Im going to assume you bypassed the cable box and plugged the co-ax directly into the tv? You wont get all the channels obviously, but some is better than none right?

I'm an idiot; no I have not tried that yet. That'll be my task for today.

B

[Bretsky]

Wait, can somebody explain to me how this Cable TV works ?

I have five televisions in our house. The Big Screen is hooked up to the cable box and the rest are not. None are working.

Is the cable box the central station that gives off signal to all the other tv's ?

I'm assuming that if I unplug the box and put the coax directly into the TV the best case is I get the local stations, correct ?

[retailguy]

Wait, can somebody explain to me how this Cable TV works ?

I have five televisions in our house. The Big Screen is hooked up to the cable box and the rest are not. None are working.

Is the cable box the central station that gives off signal to all the other tv's ?

I'm assuming that if I unplug the box and put the coax directly into the TV the best case is I get the local stations, correct ?

You should go to the point where the cable comes into the house. Hook a portable TV into the connection coming into the house. If you have TV, then the line is fine coming into the house, and the problem is most likely the block that apportions out the lines into the house. If TV does not work, that indicates that the problem is between the pole and house.

Good luck. If you have "friendly" neighbors, you could buy 150' of coax and "piggyback" off the neighbors house until Charter gets there, just connect the coax to your incoming line and you'll have cable throughout the house.

[Badgepack]

Cable theft is a crime, don't you watch the commercials?

[retailguy]

Cable theft is a crime, don't you watch the commercials?


It is not a crime if you already have it. Right now he is paying for something that he is not receiving.

I'm 90% positive the problem is the cable from the street to the house. Someone has probably dug a hole and hit the cable. Moisture gets into the cable, and over time corrodes the connection.

[Partial]

I hate the Charter.

I have a solution.... Directv.


You're welcome.

Yeah.

Then he'll lose the reception during thunder storms.

Another solution - move to a place that doesn't have thunder storms :lol:

I've had DirecTV for years w/o a single interruption.

When I had Charter at UW, we were consistently screwed over - to the point where I'd take their stupid High Speed Internet Modem to their office and laugh as they tried to make it work at their site - it was the quickest way to get new equipment and bypass their 'tech service' BS.

I was gonna say this exact same thing. I have heard AWFUL things about them in madtown. Their is a massive facebook group called Charter communications blows goats! :lol:

[Fosco33]

Not my info... but this may be another thing to try.




The first experiment was to connect the RF connector of the cable directly to the TV (this connection was to the Cable box earlier). To my surprise, I got video and audio in the TV and I could watch a non-premium TV channel. Perhaps this was not suprising -- afterall, there was signal in the cable (that is how the COMCAST technician was able to do a remote "reset") and not all channels are scrambled, though this is something I didn't know before. This also confirmed that there was no problem with the TV's RF reception circuitry (I knew that rest of the TV worked fine, for I could get the video and audio signals from both the VCR and the DVD Player).

Though this trick got me a functioning TV, it did little to solve my immediate problem, for Zee is a premium channel and its signals are scrambled.

While inspecting the Cable box, I noticed that it also has output ports for normal Video Audio 3 wire cable. This gave me an idea. Why not connect the cable to the cable box and use a Video Audio connector to connect the cable box with the TV. Afterall, there was some possibility that the problem was with the RF output of the cable box, and not with the de-scrambling circuitry. So I tried that.

[Partial]

Cable theft is a crime, don't you watch the commercials?


It is not a crime if you already have it. Right now he is paying for something that he is not receiving.

I'm 90% positive the problem is the cable from the street to the house. Someone has probably dug a hole and hit the cable. Moisture gets into the cable, and over time corrodes the connection.

I'd bet charter is right and its a box error. He is getting internet musn't we forget.

[Partial]

Wait, can somebody explain to me how this Cable TV works ?

I have five televisions in our house. The Big Screen is hooked up to the cable box and the rest are not. None are working.

Is the cable box the central station that gives off signal to all the other tv's ?

I'm assuming that if I unplug the box and put the coax directly into the TV the best case is I get the local stations, correct ?

You'll get regular, non-digital cable. You'll get channels 2-75 probably, assuming you have a digital cable package. This fact changes my opinion that its the box. That is F'in weird. I would tell them none of the TVs are working, yet the internet is. Something is screwy there.

[retailguy]

You'll get regular, non-digital cable. You'll get channels 2-75 probably, assuming you have a digital cable package. This fact changes my opinion that its the box. That is F'in weird. I would tell them none of the TVs are working, yet the internet is. Something is screwy there.


Thats why I think it is a cable. If internet works, then it is probably the cable that apportions the tv throughout the house. Internet working signals the cable from the road is OK.

[Zool]

Cable signal has a broad spectrum that it uses to broadcast. The upper levels of the broadcast signal are for TV and the lower levels are for internet access. If a filter has gone bad in the box outside his house, the TV's might be getting the whole spectrum which would interrupt signal. Its not likely, but its about the only explination. The cable box only sends signal to the TV that its hooked up to.

Very odd that your internet access is up but your TV is not. The suggestion to hook a TV up directly at the main pipe coming in is right on. That should eliminate the problem being with any wiring in the house.

You probably have a splitter for the TV's somewhere in your utility room. Check that area first.

[Partial]

You'll get regular, non-digital cable. You'll get channels 2-75 probably, assuming you have a digital cable package. This fact changes my opinion that its the box. That is F'in weird. I would tell them none of the TVs are working, yet the internet is. Something is screwy there.


Thats why I think it is a cable. If internet works, then it is probably the cable that apportions the tv throughout the house. Internet working signals the cable from the road is OK.

This seems to make the most sense. I must say though, it would take some serious amps to render a coaxial cable useless, and in the process of doing so would likely kill the cable modem or at least a fuse in the cable modem. Interesting situation you've got there, Bretsky.

[GrnBay007]

LOL ...no skinmax for B for a few days!!!!



sorry B, had to get that in. :twisted:

[Bretsky]

INTERESTING UPDATE

Well, things have improved a bit; first I tried what Zool first suggested.

I took the cable box out of the scenario. I unpugged the co ax cable going into the box, and plugged it directly into the TV on Antannae A on back of the TV.

Then I added the cable channels on there.

Now before there was absolutly no video feed; the message I received was the channel was going to be available shortly. Had that since Wednesday; Charter never suggested doing anything but the power off and unplug. They also never gave any bias as to what is wrong; my theory was the Box, but they offered nothing as far as to what they thought.

NOW I can get all of the channels that I can receive without the box, but they get in at about 33% visibility. Hear the sound perfectly.

IF I'm reading this right, it does sound like it's the Cable Box then ? And the channels are probably coming in about as good as they can ?
It's surely an improvement. At least I can partially watch football now.

Thanks all for input, and any further ideas are appreciated as well

B

[Bretsky]

LOL ...no skinmax for B for a few days!!!!



sorry B, had to get that in. :twisted:


I'm going through several withdrawals and am getting the shakes already :wink:

[GrnBay007]

LOL ...no skinmax for B for a few days!!!!



sorry B, had to get that in. :twisted:


I'm going through several withdrawals and am getting the shakes already :wink:

I just won 10 bucks! LOL

[Partial]

INTERESTING UPDATE

Well, things have improved a bit; first I tried what Zool first suggested.

I took the cable box out of the scenario. I unpugged the co ax cable going into the box, and plugged it directly into the TV on Antannae A on back of the TV.

Then I added the cable channels on there.

Now before there was absolutly no video feed; the message I received was the channel was going to be available shortly. Had that since Wednesday; Charter never suggested doing anything but the power off and unplug. They also never gave any bias as to what is wrong; my theory was the Box, but they offered nothing as far as to what they thought.

NOW I can get all of the channels that I can receive without the box, but they get in at about 33% visibility. Hear the sound perfectly.

IF I'm reading this right, it does sound like it's the Cable Box then ? And the channels are probably coming in about as good as they can ?
It's surely an improvement. At least I can partially watch football now.

Thanks all for input, and any further ideas are appreciated as well

B

If you can get all the channels of digital cable, somehow you're receiving an ASTC signal with an NTSC tv (unless its a digital/high def tv). This, or the fact that the box is converting the images from progressive to interlace, could be the reason that you're getting an unclear image.

[Bretsky]

I reread my post and erred in my explanation. I can receive all of the basic cable channels; not the digital channels that I normally need the box for.

But before taking the box out of the equation "all" of the channels were unavailable. Now just the ones that required the box are unavailable. But they get in like crap.

[Partial]

I reread my post and erred in my explanation. I can receive all of the basic cable channels; not the digital channels that I normally need the box for.

But before taking the box out of the equation "all" of the channels were unavailable. Now just the ones that required the box are unavailable. But they get in like crap.

Hmmm... That's bizzare, so you're receiving the NTSC (which you should be), but the signal appears weak. I think RG is right and somewhere along the line there is a damaged cable or something.

[FavreChild]

Perhaps if the cable companies didn't have a monopoly on coverage areas, we customers could take our business elsewhere.

And remember, millions of Americans cannot get DirecTv for geographic reasons, not to mention financial ones.

[MJZiggy]

Really? I thought trees were the only obstacle (well that and the occasional mountain). It's actually cheaper than cable as well.

[Bretsky]

Really? I thought trees were the only obstacle (well that and the occasional mountain). It's actually cheaper than cable as well.

Not if you have four TV's in the house and a Cable TV/ Cable Internet Package.

[Packers4Ever]

I reread my post and erred in my explanation. I can receive all of the basic cable channels; not the digital channels that I normally need the box for.

But before taking the box out of the equation "all" of the channels were unavailable. Now just the ones that required the box are unavailable. But they get in like crap.

--------------------------------------------------

Bretsky, just reading what you've had to deal with is mind-boggling,
I can almost feel the frustration!


We have Charter too but just for the TV - week before last we suddenly see only lower portion of screen where it gives channel, time of day etc....called Charter and they sent 2 guys out next day, they said all we needed was a new box. They took the old one and went on their way.

Two days later, a Friday, same deal. Called them again. They said they'd be out next Tuesday - that meant missing the Packer's game with the Rams. In the meantime, that same Friday we called them, my computer screen suddenly went black and it shut itself down. From that day, til last Tuesday, there was NO TV, NO computer, you wanna see withdrawal ??? Not a pretty sight!
:cry: After a few days of this it would stay booted up for me, but I'm still holding my breath.

So I hope you're 100% ok now - - so far, so good over here ! :mrgreen:

[Little Whiskey]

I'm going through several withdrawals and am getting the shakes already :wink:


weird.....your hand is going thru withdrawl too??? maybe try giving your hand another job to handle. maybe try writing or typing on PR.

to fix your reception try plugging in those tin-foil laced rabbit ears. at least you could get the local channels?? just like they did befor the invention of cable.

[MadtownPacker]

Dammit Bretsky, cant you just cheap some rich people on their loan so you can get DTV? It is the programming that pimps nationwide prefer.