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Cable Trouble


megk

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Is anyone else out there having trouble with their cable? Since December most channels have been intermittent at best on both our TVs -- I got a guy coming out Wednesday -- 3rd or 4th time -- Needless to say, I'm getting annoyed since we're getting nothing below 100.

Traffic channel wears thin ;-)

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I don't know your situation, but I had similar problems with my cable and they couldn't or wouldn't fix it. And yes, I upgraded almost all my cable to quad-shielded RG6. I ordered Dish Network -- it's cheaper, I get the channels I want (yay Speed TV!), and so far it's been far more reliable.

That said, I did keep Cox for my internet access. Verizon was absolutely horrible: slow, expensive, frequent dropouts. The RG6 made a big different there.

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We had a similar problem a month or so ago... it ended up being real simple. I'm not sure if this is what's causing your problem, but the repair guy told us that back in December they (and I'm assuming Cox) replaced a lot of their cable in Providence, and simulcast analog and digital signals.

What that means is that you could have cable working fine on a cable-ready TV with no box (using the analog signal), while your TV attached to the digital box is crap - tiled or doesn't come in. The solution for us was simply to replace our old cables.

There's two main types of coax cable used for TV - RG59, which is cheaper and typically lighter, and RG6, which is heavier and more expensive. The repair guy told us that RG59 wasn't capable of transmitting the digital signal without cable loss, and that we should replace our cables with RG6. Additionally, he said to stay away from gold splitters.

I was amazed, but replacing 4' of cable with better grade stuff actually did resolve the problem. You could give that a shot and maybe be able to cancel the repair call, or, worst case, be polite to the repair guy - he's got the final say as to whether you get charged or not (by all rights he should if it turns out to be your cable, but the guy that helped us out didn't).

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  • 2 weeks later...
I don't know your situation, but I had similar problems with my cable and they couldn't or wouldn't fix it. And yes, I upgraded almost all my cable to quad-shielded RG6. I ordered Dish Network -- it's cheaper, I get the channels I want (yay Speed TV!), and so far it's been far more reliable.

That said, I did keep Cox for my internet access. Verizon was absolutely horrible: slow, expensive, frequent dropouts. The RG6 made a big different there.

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If you have Cox for just internet with no TV, do they let you have the same speed you had when they were your TV vendor, too? I was reading one of these "Net Neutrality" guys who was blasting cable companies for only giving him 3Mbps when he pulled his TV service business, as opposed to the 6Mbps they gave him when he had them for TV. Maybe the cable company didn't want him using YouTube instead of TV, or something. What's the situation at your house?
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Finally, LIN TV ( ch 12 & 64 ) has reached an agreement with Cox Communications which will allow them to broadcast HD signals on their system as of 5pm tonight.

Cox Communications and LIN TV Corp. have ended a long-running dispute over high-definition TV.

The companies announced today that they had reached an agreement for retransmission consent of WNAC Fox Providence and WPRI CBS in both analog and in high-definition.

The analog channels are found on Cox channel 11 (Fox) and channel 12 (CBS). The high-definition signals will be available on Cox Digital Cable channels 704 and 701, respectively, beginning today at 5 p.m.

Cox and LIN have been going back and forth about high-definition for more than two years.

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Off-topic I know, but when is LIN going to boost their HD broadcast signal? They're the closest towers to me, but their signal is so weak I can barely get it -- and I can't get 12 and 64 at the same time even though both come out of the same tower. I have to jiggle the rabbit's ears to switch from 12 to 64.

You'd think they would at least let _someone_ watch their channels... . They're the ProJo.com of TV. :)

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Is Cox the only game in town for cable?

I have Comcast now and although it is expensive its pretty reliable and HD is swell. I saw an interesting article about Verizon FIOS TV coming to RI but is it available in Providence yet/ever?

This whole cable monopoly thing has to end. I can outsource my electric service to like 50 different companies at 50 different rates but I can only get cable from one company. It's insane.

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Is Cox the only game in town for cable?

I have Comcast now and although it is expensive its pretty reliable and HD is swell. I saw an interesting article about Verizon FIOS TV coming to RI but is it available in Providence yet/ever?

This whole cable monopoly thing has to end. I can outsource my electric service to like 50 different companies at 50 different rates but I can only get cable from one company. It's insane.

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Is Cox the only game in town for cable?

I have Comcast now and although it is expensive its pretty reliable and HD is swell. I saw an interesting article about Verizon FIOS TV coming to RI but is it available in Providence yet/ever?

This whole cable monopoly thing has to end. I can outsource my electric service to like 50 different companies at 50 different rates but I can only get cable from one company. It's insane.

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Yeah Cox has screwed up both times I had cable/internet installed. Both times they tried to install Digital Cable when I never ordered it. And I hate how they break up your installation charges into three months bills. You get the charge the first month and think, oh great, that's it! Then you get the charge again, and again. It'd be nice if they told people that.

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If I recall correctly, the person I spoke to did explain that the installation charge would be spread across the first three bills. We've had our own problems with Cox, mostly to do with splitters and signal loss degrading our high speed internet service, but no problems for several months now...

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Cox installed the splitter box upside down on the outside of my house, so instead of keeping rain out, it made rain go in, resulting in a messed up picture and a lot of confusion. They finally came out and fixed it, but the guy gave me "free" extra channels, which I didn't notice until they showed up on my bill after 3 months. Waaaah!

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Cox installed the splitter box upside down on the outside of my house, so instead of keeping rain out, it made rain go in, resulting in a messed up picture and a lot of confusion. They finally came out and fixed it, but the guy gave me "free" extra channels, which I didn't notice until they showed up on my bill after 3 months. Waaaah!
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