I've had Buckeye's HD service for about a year and a half. Everything was fine until Monday 11/29, when some of my HD channels are very pixelated, or just not tuning in. Sometimes the outage is several minutes, other times it's out several hours (This channel will be available shortly...error code....). The following Wednesday, a technician came out, my cable was working fine, but noticed some shielding was missing on the line from the pole to the house. This was replaced Saturday, 12/4. Later that afternoon, the signal went out again. Thinking the wiring in the house is the culprit, I took my HD box, and my 19 inch HDTV outside and connected directly to the new wire---bypassing my house altogether---No HD signal, but SD was fine. The signal was out most of the weekend, and came back late Sunday evening. Another tech came out Tuesday, everything was working correctly, and he installed an amplifier on the line in my house. I was doubtful, and as suspected, yesterday, Thursday, no HD signal again. Buckeye is to be sending out another tech tonight, but if the HD is working, they said there's not a lot that can be done. I'm getting frustrated because any DVR programs won't record if the signal is out, and considering Uverse for TV. Anyone have it? Comments? BTW, I have replaced the HD box, I have 2 of them, so that is not the issue. Thanks for letting me rant...
Buckeye HD Intermittent Signal
Comments ... #
Do you have a cable modem with them? What's in the signal and logfile pages on it?
posted by anonymouscoward on Dec 10, 2010 at 01:24:18 pm #
I'll have to check that out when I get home. I was just checking the signal strength/snr at the box by going into the diagnostic menu.
posted by jbtaurus98 on Dec 10, 2010 at 01:35:11 pm #
Had a similar problem before I ditched cable. They did remote tests and sent a tech out and never fixed it. My gf at the time said she had the same problem and that it was the box. She asked them to swap boxes and the problem went away.
Just my $0.02. Good luck, it is annoying.
posted by INeedCoffee on Dec 10, 2010 at 01:43:12 pm #
I have had uverse for almost 2 years now, and I am happy. There is occasional pixelation, and an occasional picture freeze. never a long outage. Don't miss the Buckeye commercials at all.
Higher SNR levels = good. Levels below 30 = bad.
Downstream power level should be between -5 and +5 dBmV, upstream needs to be below 50dBmV.
If analog channels are fuzzy, you have a big issue.
HD channels would flake before SD digital channels because HD has a higher data rate and is therefore more susceptible to corruption by noise.
posted by anonymouscoward on Dec 10, 2010 at 06:08:02 pm #
I've had U-Verse since it was available in Toledo. It works fine unless you want Hallmark channels. They dropped them 3 months ago.
U-Verse a solid performer here. No pixelation, picture freeze does happen but it is rare. Sharp picture.
We love Direct TV. The international channels are great and enable us to watch Cricket at the same time as our Aussie friends. On the rare occasion that we had to have a Tech come out they got the px fixed straight away.
Another tech (the 5th in 10 days) came out last night. They found a problem in the lines along the street. Said it would be repaired sometime today...still waiting.
BTW, I did check the power level when I got home: Freq/Power: 639.000 MHz -9 dBmV
ATT Uverse says they have a 30 money back guarantee, I have nothing to lose. I'm going to set up an install date if my cable is not fixed by Monday.
posted by jbtaurus98 on Dec 11, 2010 at 05:59:46 pm #
My GF lives in southwyck area, had LOTS of problems w/ VOD not working, field techs knew of several reports of same trouble nearby, the problem was in the system hardware, no solution till after GF replaced her converter box,(twice?), accused me of messing up her wiring, finally waiting for techs to arrive only to hear them say that problem's NOT in house wires.
I believe the problem is solved. Yesterday, Buckeye had reports of 4 other outages on my street. They found a section of cable with the shielding gnawed by squirrels and a distribution box that was cracked and full of water.
posted by jbtaurus98 on Dec 12, 2010 at 03:46:09 pm #
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