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Topic: Bring Back Analog TV, please! |
Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 5 Sep 2009 3:50 am |
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What genius(s) came up with digital TV? Those birds that are still trying to get us to go to Mars? (we still have yet to figure out how to live on this planet - just blows my mind)
I don't get it.
I've got Comcast.
Ever since DAY-1, my reception has and still is AWFUL.
I learned more about what computer "glitches" look like in my first week with digital TV, than in all the years since August 1998, when I joined the ranks of PC users.
Comcast techs have now been out here twice.
The 2nd trip was to completely change-out the cable from the street to my shack (uh - 3 football fields in length?)
I just, now, got off the phone with Comcast, yet again, and another tech will be here Tues. 9/8.
I have the cheapest cable package at under $10/mnth; because the $45 intermediary plan, I used to pay for, is no better than the $10 one. Lousy reception and the same REPEAT programs over and over and over again. YAWN. But still. No matter. You watch it. One channel just keeps, audio-wise, 'hiccuping' about every 15 seconds.
Never mind steel guitar frustrations, this makes me want to put a gun to my head.
You can have digital/schmidigal.
Bring back the tried and true. ANALOG.
YEAH!!! YEAH!!! YEAH!!!
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 5 Sep 2009 5:34 am
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What you get with a cable service has nothing to do with whether the originating signal is digtal or analog. The cable companies "convert" all the channels to what they want. Even when it was analog the cable companies still converted the signals to what they wanted to use. If there is a problem it's with the cable company, not the TV stations or the satellite "cable" stations.
Your TV set is getting the same analog as it was before the conversion. |
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Dave Potter
From:
Texas
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Posted 5 Sep 2009 5:46 am
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The "digital conversion" thing is strange in some ways. Many of us who have been subscribing to one of the satellite services for decades didn't even feel it - our service was already "digital". Something else odd to me is that I thought analog TV was extinct now. It's not. I thought I'd be smart when we were in our RV recently and demonstrate to the wife how the rooftop antenna was as useless as an appendix, now that no analog signals were available. To my utter amazement, we were able to receive several analog signals.
But to your point - I'm talking out of school since I can only speculate, based on your description, but a cable TV feedline "3 football fields in length" is going to have significant signal antennuation, I bet. Do you have any kind of amplifier installed to get some of that signal loss back? That's one thing to look at.
Of course, and depending on how important your TV viewing is to you, the final fix would be to dump Comcast, their "set-top box", and all that coax, and subscribe to DirecTV or similar. You won't get it for $10/month, but you will get quality reception and varied content to watch. |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 5 Sep 2009 9:05 am
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| Dave Potter wrote: |
I thought analog TV was extinct now. It's not. I thought I'd be smart when we were in our RV recently and demonstrate to the wife how the rooftop antenna was as useless as an appendix, now that no analog signals were available. To my utter amazement, we were able to receive several analog signals.
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Did you look at those broadcasts? They were just showing you how to hook up your D-to-A box. And they are gone now. |
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Dave Potter
From:
Texas
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Posted 5 Sep 2009 10:05 am
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| Earnest Bovine wrote: |
| Did you look at those broadcasts? They were just showing you how to hook up your D-to-A box. And they are gone now. |
Nope. They were none of that...This was *after* the transition, and they were normal programming. None had anything to do with a/d boxes.
They might have been low power stations which by law will be permitted to continue broadcasting for several more years. I see at least two LPTV stations listed in the area we were.
Last edited by Dave Potter on 5 Sep 2009 10:25 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 5 Sep 2009 10:10 am
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| I guess Los Angeles is different from Texas. (..that is called a straight line...) |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 5 Sep 2009 11:48 am
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The digital-to-analog switch had nothing to do with giving you a better picture. It also had nothing to do with opening up frequencies for emergency services. It was nothing more than a revenue-generation scheme for the government, plain and simple. They wanted to sell (or rather lease) the analog TV bands (mostly to digital phone carriers) for hundreds of millions of dollars so that digital phone service would have increased bandwidth and lower frequencies for expanded and inexpensive downloading capabilities.
It was one of the biggest boondoggles in the history of communications.  |
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Dave Potter
From:
Texas
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Posted 5 Sep 2009 3:19 pm
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| Donny Hinson wrote: |
The digital-to-analog switch had nothing to do with giving you a better picture. It also had nothing to do with opening up frequencies for emergency services. It was nothing more than a revenue-generation scheme for the government, plain and simple. They wanted to sell (or rather lease) the analog TV bands (mostly to digital phone carriers) for hundreds of millions of dollars so that digital phone service would have increased bandwidth and lower frequencies for expanded and inexpensive downloading capabilities.
It was one of the biggest boondoggles in the history of communications. |
Donny, don't hold back about this. Next time, just say what's on your mind. 
All I was really trying to do was help Chip get something he could enjoy on his TV...  |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 6 Sep 2009 4:12 am
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OK - maybe a football field and a half. Hard to say, as many many trees block a complete vision to the main road.
Which is the main reason I have not switched over to direct TV. Believe me, I've tried. They came out twice over the years and both times said I have no southern exposure. Figured maybe on the 2nd scope-out trip that they may have gotten around that southern exposure thing. Nope.
The TV picture(s) in and of themselves aren't bad, but they are always interrupted by either blocky PC 'walling' (I call it), complete blackouts, no sound, broken sound, hiccupping, stopped picture, and old- time TV blinking/flashing white horizontal lines. Other than those problems, the picture (s) are OK.
In a way, it's been a blessing in disguise. The bad reception, coupled with atrocious TV content, forces me to get off the couch much faster, now.
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 6 Sep 2009 5:51 am
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Quite a few years ago now, we did some remodeling on the house. We live out in the country and had an antenna on the roof. We had to take down the antenna to do the remodeling and we never put it back up again.
We just quit watching television.
It was truly a blessing in disguise!  |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 6 Sep 2009 6:39 am
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Bravo Erv!
Failed to mention, BTW, that all this bad reception
business started almost immediately after Comcast came in here and installed their 'big bad black box'.
Before that went in, all was fine in TV land.
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 6 Sep 2009 8:14 am
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| Chip Fossa wrote: |
Bravo Erv!
Failed to mention, BTW, that all this bad reception
business started almost immediately after Comcast came in here and installed their 'big bad black box'.
Before that went in, all was fine in TV land. |
Please describe that "black box" in better detail. What does it contain? Are you getting limited channels by their use of a screw on filter? These things sometimes get corroded.
I am also a Comcast customer. A few months ago I was getting frequent signal dropouts on my outgoing Comcast phone service and occasional digitizing on miscellaneous TV channels. A technician was dispatched to my trailer and poked around for a while. He couldn't find anything wrong with the electronics. So, he went outside and discovered that the splitter used to feed separate lines to 3 rooms had corrosion on the threads, leading to corrosion on the cable connectors. He replaced the splitter and cable ends and the problem disappeared instantly. My TV reception also improved.
Check all splitters and cable ends for looseness or corrosion. Also, follow all cables and look to see if they have animal bites piercing the wires. If you have an inline channel filter ask to have it replaced.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 6 Sep 2009 7:18 pm
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Wiz,
The techs went through everything you mentioned. Believe me. They did. That was the 1st trip - they came in with electronic control monitoring devices, the whole nine yards. Decided I needed to have my incoming cables changed-out. Told me squirrels sometimes gnaw through the cable, and that this can cause a reception deterioration. Are you kidding? I said, "OK" - sounds good to me. Let me say, that all those pesky tree rats that eat up my bird feeder seeds are very well fed, and I doubt they have to resort to Comcast cables for vitamin C.
The 'box' is their cross-over box; that they decided I had to have, to continue-on with their unadulterated broadcasting.
I don't have a friggin' clue what's in the box, or how it operates.
It's their standard, I guess, "conversion" box.
That's all I know.
Actually, I suspect that all my problems are in that box. I told the tech of my suspicion about the box. Wouldn't it be a lot easier to change-out the dumb box, instead of going through the expense of running in new cable. Fell on deaf ears. ie. what does a homeowner, or in my case, homegroaner, know? I know
nothing. I fear nothing.
I'll bet when they come out Tuesday, they'll change-out the box.
The box in here now is all
scratched and beat up. C'mon. What would you think?
Hmmm???
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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Robert Harper
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 6 Sep 2009 7:53 pm The DogAte it
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Nothing to help your reception or calm you will be read in this post. Several years ago, one of my friends had a satelite dish installed, you know, one of those satelite tracking stations when it was all new. Any way, his dog chewed through the cable. The company that installed the dish said ' that was impossible the cable was rodent proof, guess they did not tell the canine
_________________
"Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first begin to deceive" Someone Famous |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 6 Sep 2009 8:48 pm
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Robert...no apologies necessary. You made my day.
God bless, brother.
Keep 'um comin'; those tales of woe.
Oh darn, this is gettin' good.
Yeah, don't they're responses just knock you out? They actually think you don't have a clue about their inferior equipment, and/or their lame responses and blatant indifference to your particular problem.
When you tell them about PC botched-up ugliness, they initially look at you like you're from outer space.
I almost had to shut and lock the door to keep the Comcast tech in my trailer and keep watching channel 290, the one with the major hiccups, because, as it goes, the dumb reception wasn't exactly malfunctioning every 15 seconds, but on this day, maybe, around, UH, 25 seconds?
The dude wanted to hit the trail.
I said "no way". You stay here and suffer like me; jerk. You'll get the message, pal. And he did.
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 7 Sep 2009 6:41 am
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Chip,
Just shut off the TV and practice your guitar.  |
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Michael Barone
From:
Downingtown, Pennsylvania
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Posted 7 Sep 2009 4:57 pm
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It just sounds to me like Comcast refuses to acknowledge that you may need an RF amplifier placed in the line close to your house. If you want to experiment you can buy one at Radio Shack and install it yourself. (I think they still sell them) You hook it up in series with the cable signal, plug it into AC power, and adjust the gain.
Comcast & Verizon don't like to admit that their signal is weak. The techs are trained to tell you that the signal is always strong enough.
Just my take.
Mike |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 8 Sep 2009 4:49 am
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The Comcast tech just left here, about 10 minutes ago.
He checked out the cables within the trailer again with his monitoring meter (just like the 1st tech did) only this time he found 'noise' on a section of cable. The 1st tech found NO noise.
So this morning this 3rd tech replaced the section of in-house cable and said that SHOULD do it. Then he said, if not, take the box to one of Comcast's facilities in Spfld., or Amherst and swap it for another box. But isn't this their job? Don't they carry a couple of boxes in their vans? What kind of repair outfit is this, anyway? It would be like me showing up with no tubing, fittings, or torch.
I also found out that the box they gave me is an older style, but that the newer style is not compatible with my 'older' (5-7 yrs) Magnavox.
I turned off the TV without really checking it out and got back to the PC.
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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Jim Kennedy
From:
Brentwood California, USA
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Posted 9 Sep 2009 8:00 am
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I installed video systems in hotes and such for a couple of years. The first thing I learned was that the cable company will never admit they have a problem. Thus I carried signat strength meters and signal generators to prove my point.
The corrosion thing is quite true. It doesn't take much and you're dead in the water.
Grounding is also important. What is your cable grounded to where it comes into the house? No ground, no good.
The connectors have to be installed correctly on the cable. They must be snug, and the center insulator must be inserted fully into the connector. I have seen systems where this was not done, and believe me it causes all kinds of problems. I have literally replaced almost every connector in 200 plus tv systems to clear up the reception. Our design engineers thought I was crazy until they joined me in the field and actually saw this work.
Kinks, bends, and twists can also cause problems. I have seen tight loops cause a single channel to be lost. It took me 2 days to find that one.
Anyway, good luck. I hope you can get them to fix it.
_________________
ShoBud Pro 1, 75 Tele, 85 Yamaha SA 2000, Fender Cybertwin, |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 9 Sep 2009 10:23 am
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I haven't rally checked for any grounding. There's such a confusion of wires at a particular location along with telephone and electrical lines, and severed old lines, that I wouldn't know where to begin.
But there are a couple of metal junction boxes (Comcast) and I know one is attached with metal screws to the side of the metal trailer.
One of the PBS stations crapped out early this morning. I haven't gone to the real problematic channel, cuz I didn't want to wind up throwing something through the picture tube. That channel let's you know in 10-15 seconds if things are good or bad. Of course it's always been bad.
So, I can say, I guess, that they really didn't resolve the issue, yet, again.
I'm sure the cable companies know all too well what's up with anyone's given problem; but the truth is, it will probably cost them big bucks to fix it. Must be some expensive hunk of equipment out on the main branch(es).
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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