I’ve got digital cable provided by Comcast. The TV in the living room is the only one with the converter box. The one in the bedroom does not.
Over the last week, I’ve noticed the reception on many channels gradually starting to deteriorate, especially on the network stations. Today it really started taking a nosedive in picture quality on many channels, and a few have become nothing but snow. ABC is virtually unwatchable.
This is a real problem, since I’m absolutely dependent on closed captions for enjoying a program, and if there’s poor reception, there’s poor captions, or none at all.
Curiously, the channels available only as part of the Digital Cable Plan, such as the History International Channel, come through perfectly. But the regular History Channel has a bunch of snow on it.
At first I thought it might be the VCR. I unplugged it and ran the cable directly into the TV. No change.
Another curiousity is that the TV in my bedroom, which gets basic cable, is getting perfect reception.
Anyone have ideas as to how I might fix this on my own? And if not, does anyone have ideas as to why the reception is turning to crap on so many channels, except for the ones provided through the digital cable plan?
Generally speaking, the lower number channels have poorer reception than the higher number channels, although there are some curious exceptions. The Fox News Channel, which is on channel 76, looks dreadful, while the Food Channel (hallowed be Alton Brown’s name), looks watchable and the captioning still comes through. CNN at channel 20 is a mess, while the Weather Channel at 21 is acceptable.
But the networks are a total disaster. Can’t even get captioning on those.
If it is a bad cable, why would the channels on the digital cable plan (like Encore, Sundance Channel, etc.) come through with perfect clarity?
You have seperate cables going to each TV, with at least one splitter, right? Try swapping things around and see what happens. Try disconnecting the cable box completely and see if that affects the signal to the other TVs. Your cbale connecctions are a fairly complex electical circuit. The loading of the circuit can affect the signal.
Sometime a bad splitter or a bad cable connector can cause the signal to degrade. I had something very similar happen to my TVs and things got better once I put a good, new connector on the main cable line coming to the house.
You have seperate cables going to each TV, with at least one splitter, right? Try swapping things around and see what happens. Try disconnecting the cable box completely and see if that affects the signal to the other TVs. Your cbale connecctions are a fairly complex electical circuit. The loading of the circuit can affect the signal.
Sometime a bad splitter or a bad cable connector can cause the signal to degrade. I had something very similar happen to my TVs and things got better once I put a good, new connector on the main cable line coming to the house.
As an employee of a large cable company, my first suggestion would be to ensure that you don’t have any loose connections anywhere along the line as this is a major cause of poor quality reception. The second leading cause if bad wiring or old wiring, usually this is fault of bad connectors on the ends of you cables. Also, the push-on cables that sometimes come with vcr’s and such are terrible and should never be used… they are usually cheap quality and cause problems.
As others have said, if the problem is occuring on more than one tv, you may have a splitter problem. You could try hooking your tv up to the main line coming in and see if the problem occurs with no splitter involved. It is entirely possible there is a problem with the line coming into your house or it could even be an area problem.
If you can’t easily solve the problem on your own it’s a good idea to just have a tech come out and fix it… Most cable companies offer free service calls.
Also, regarding digital cable, the digital channels are usually at a higher frequency and are less likely to be affected by interference. Also, digital channels tend to either work, or not work with not inbetween. If interference is affecting a digital channel you’ll normally see the signal drop out (screen goes blank) and then fill back in. With digital you won’t see ghosting or fuzziness.
Squirrels. Seriously. A year ago we had lousy (lossy) images in the lower channels. Our cable company technician had to climb a pole and replace the wire due to squirrel gnawings. You’re paying for good reception, have them come and test it for you.
We used to get terrible (often unwatchable) basic cable reception on the broadcast stations only. I guess what was happening was that where we lived, the broadcast signal strong enough to actually interfere with the cable signal, so that it was making a mess of the channels that we would have easily received with an antenna. Turned out there was a problem with a connection or bad wiring or something… we’d call to have it fixed, they’d come out and fix it, but then two or three weeks later the broadcast channels would go to hell again. We finally found the absolute best solution, and we haven’t had any problems since:
I suggest calling the cable company too. Ours does this 1 or 2 times a year and I get right on the phone and have some guys come out and fix it. They run tests and climb poles and reconnect things.
It may take a week or so to get a guy to come out, but it SHOULD be free (fwiw I have Adelphia Digital Cable) and you shouldn’t have to mess with any of that stuff.
Also, technically doesn’t the cable company own all of those components (switches, boxes, etc)? You don’t want to go messing with or replacing their stuff.
I suggest calling the cable company too. Ours does this 1 or 2 times a year and I get right on the phone and have some guys come out and fix it. They run tests and climb poles and reconnect things.
It may take a week or so to get a guy to come out, but it SHOULD be free (fwiw I have Adelphia Digital Cable) and you shouldn’t have to mess with any of that stuff.
Also, technically doesn’t the cable company own all of those components (switches, boxes, etc)? You don’t want to go messing with or replacing their stuff.