[Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response in Mediacom

[Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response in Mediacom http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19284768 en Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:28:01 EDT Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:28:01 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20995187 Scott72 :

said by wth

said by OldCableGuy :

I didn't have similar issues with the transition to a digital headend & delivery in Cedar Rapids
Get basic services from Dish or DirecTV if you can

and as for Direct, watch out as they don't have an retrans agreement with KCRG, so no ABC-HD.

That's an easy fix. If you're not able to get KCRG's signal via OTA, then you're eligible for the digital distant New York HD feed. Just had mine turned on a few days ago. All locals are in HD now. Life is good.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20995187 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:23:22 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20974218 JasonU :

said by OldCableGuy :

I've followed this thread for a long time. I didn't have similar issues with the transition to a digital headend & delivery in Cedar Rapids, but I had plenty of other ones. The only thing I can say, is to vote with your wallet. Get basic services from Dish or DirecTV if you can, it might cost a bit more to get boxes for each TV, but Mediacom has no incentive to fix these issues until people are fed up and do something about it.

I have to agree with this. I recently moved from Iowa, and decided to go with DirecTV over the local cable franchise. I wished I'd made the switch years ago in Iowa. I'm so much happier, and paying (even with box lease fees) about the same amount of money I paid for Extended (analog) basic, and I get HD channels and digital SD channels that all look better than the fuzzy poor PQ I put up with for years in DSM. Not only that, but I was able to get 1 HD (not a PVR) and 2 SD boxes free, no upfront cost.

I've also not had to put up with the constant cablebox issues I read about on here.

I do have to say, there is an occasional sync problem with a few channels (usually FX), but it's never more than a few hours at a time, instead of days like with Mediacom.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20974218 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:03:26 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20972052 drslash : I agree, I have not seen the locals with bad sync. I have seen CNN, Fox News, VH1, CNBC, MSNBC, and a few others with bad sync.
--
Save water...drink beer!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20972052 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:38:58 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20970273 Turbocpe :

said by wth

:

You'll find most lip sinc issues were the fault of the local channels equiptment in eastern Ia and not the cable companys. Even ota was affected. Go here: »www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre···&page=74 and do a search for "lip" for eastern Iowa issues.

None of my "locals" had the audio/video sync issue. SpikeTV is one of the channels that Mediacom had with audio/video sync issues. There was a few other 20's channels here in DSM, but nothing "local".]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20970273 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:45:11 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20969728 wth : You'll find most lip sinc issues were the fault of the local channels equiptment in eastern Ia and not the cable companys. Even ota was affected. Go here: »www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre···&page=74 and do a search for "lip" for eastern Iowa issues.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20969728 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:05:38 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20969313 Turbocpe :

said by drslash

:

I reported several issues out of the Cedar Rapids head end up thread in May. Since then the digital issues have subsided. There is a problem that persists and is sporadic; video audio sync. Many channels at a time will have very noticeable and very annoying loss of sync between the video and audio. It seems that the sync can be off by about 1 second some times which is very annoying and will continue for hours at a time.

We had that issue many times. I'm not a lip reader, but that was pretty annoying and distracting issue to have.

One issue that I don't see disappearing, and I guess is the disadvantage of digital and not exactly a Mediacom issue, is the pixelation. I'm guessing this is due to high compression. It's very noticable on the Discovery channel, and in fast-motion scenes.

Overall, I admit the issues with the head-end analog/digital haven't been as bad, lately. But we still experience periods of time where blocks of channels break up and freeze, or go completely offair. Because this happens on "family extended"/"analog-only" package, it's not a customer's signal levels or equipment.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20969313 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:57:25 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20969304 wth :

said by OldCableGuy :

I didn't have similar issues with the transition to a digital headend & delivery in Cedar Rapids
Get basic services from Dish or DirecTV if you can

It was never really a problem in Iowa City, and as for Direct, watch out as they don't have an retrans agreement with KCRG, so no ABC-HD.
I cured one persons problem with Direct last Sat as this person has mediacom hsi & phone. Just needed to connect mediacom cable to his tv cable jack, he's happy now. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20969304 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:56:02 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20969182 drslash : I reported several issues out of the Cedar Rapids head end up thread in May. Since then the digital issues have subsided. There is a problem that persists and is sporadic; video audio sync. Many channels at a time will have very noticeable and very annoying loss of sync between the video and audio. It seems that the sync can be off by about 1 second some times which is very annoying and will continue for hours at a time.
--
Save water...drink beer!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20969182 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:38:38 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20969120 anon : I've followed this thread for a long time. I didn't have similar issues with the transition to a digital headend & delivery in Cedar Rapids, but I had plenty of other ones. The only thing I can say, is to vote with your wallet. Get basic services from Dish or DirecTV if you can, it might cost a bit more to get boxes for each TV, but Mediacom has no incentive to fix these issues until people are fed up and do something about it.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20969120 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:28:15 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20956889 Turbocpe : Well, looks like the some of these issues are back, again.

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Are all the channels that are off-air, and have been off-air, for a while now.

Of course this is on the "analog-only" extended package.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20956889 Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:45:23 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20514290 Turbocpe : Well since this thread got bumped to the top, and because there is another outage, thought I'd mention that the following channels starting breaking up, then went offline and have been offline for several minutes now:

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Channel 43 is the only one showing "No Signal" while the rest are simply black.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20514290 Tue, 20 May 2008 20:04:59 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20504818 maintech : Maybe I just watch TV at the wrong times, but I have not really noticed any major problems, Or possibly I am just used to much worse. Like the Comcast service I had in KY prior to moving into the Mediacom service area.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20504818 Mon, 19 May 2008 03:57:29 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20504552 Turbocpe :

said by maintech

:

Been here for 3 years and have had mediacom cable and HSI from day one. I assume I am on the same headend as everyone else but i really have had very few problems over the time I have been here, atleast problems I can blame on MC. Back last fall I had several alot of distortion for about a week, But I found several problems with the splitter at the line entrance, loose connection on two cable lines and the ground was pulled off.

I had asked since you are a newer member. Welcome. I've had cable TV & Internet for the past 10 years - back when it was being served by AT&T/@Home.

I would gather since you are in Des Moines, you would have noticed the same issues. Some of the City Council members throughout Des Moines area, and people speaking to them, had acknowledged of this exact issue - so it was definately widespread and occurred enough times to raise awareness. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20504552 Mon, 19 May 2008 01:10:29 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20504383 maintech : Been here for 3 years and have had mediacom cable and HSI from day one. I assume I am on the same headend as everyone else but i really have had very few problems over the time I have been here, atleast problems I can blame on MC. Back last fall I had several alot of distortion for about a week, But I found several problems with the splitter at the line entrance, loose connection on two cable lines and the ground was pulled off. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20504383 Mon, 19 May 2008 00:06:16 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20504231 Turbocpe :

said by maintech

:

I too live in Des Moines yet I have had very few of the issues that have been discussed here. I have had occasions of tiling and snow but these almost always occur around 2-3 am when most folks are in bed. These instances also almost always coordinate wit comlete outages on other channels so I just assume that they are related to maintenance of some kind. I can also say that very few times have these issues been bad enough to cause problems with my television viewing.

I have to admit that as of late, it isn't as bad as what it used to be. Not sure how long you have been keeping track or have had the service, but based on the messages I received offsite from this thread, as well as the responses in this, it pretty clear to me that it was widely noticed and experienced in a rather long time frame by other viewers.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20504231 Sun, 18 May 2008 23:26:38 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20503997 maintech : I too live in Des Moines yet I have had very few of the issues that have been discussed here. I have had occasions of tiling and snow but these almost always occur around 2-3 am when most folks are in bed. These instances also almost always coordinate wit comlete outages on other channels so I just assume that they are related to maintenance of some kind. I can also say that very few times have these issues been bad enough to cause problems with my television viewing.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20503997 Sun, 18 May 2008 22:38:31 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20421840 anon : You guys are lucky i can't even get them to come to my house. They schedule a time, I have to take off work to wait around from 8-12pm for them and they never show up, then make some lame excuse about why they never showed up and then they reschedule and we do the whole thing over again and again. Not only do I know have service but I'm loosing money because I have to take off work to wait for a guy who never shows up. Can't we do mass reporting to the BBB or something?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20421840 Fri, 02 May 2008 15:37:19 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20416705 drslash :

said by Anonymous

:

I think they are simply not focusing on analog service any more...

Mediacom does this at their own peril.

There will be major changes/shifts in consumers wants and needs for TV service over the next few years. There is nothing in Mediacom's history to convince me that they will be any where near the leading edge. Their history tells me that they will be lagging in fulfilling consumer's aspirations for a superior TV service and lagging in robust technology to deliver service.
--
Save water...drink beer!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20416705 Thu, 01 May 2008 14:09:19 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20416653 Turbocpe :

said by Anonymous

:

I think they are simply not focusing on analog service any more...

Last I checked, this is Mediacom's largest market (speaking of product). I understand Analog is on limited time, but what type of successful company basically blows off the largest part of their market assuming that in a few years, "all will be well"?

That's exactly what appears to be going on. These issues started last summer. It is my understanding that Mediacom plans to go to digital in 2009. Mediacom had problems with the service in 2007.

So what type of business blows off their largest market and just believes that in 2 years, if things go as planned, that all will be well in the end? :huh:

I find it hard to believe that any well run company basically has a "to __ with it plan" for 2 years, speaking of something that has been their bread and butter and is where the majority of their customers belong to.

BTW, this isn't against you Anon.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20416653 Thu, 01 May 2008 13:55:52 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20416439 Anonymous : I think they are simply not focusing on analog service any more...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20416439 Thu, 01 May 2008 13:17:17 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20415237 drslash : I, too, have reported issues with the TV service since the first of the year; tiling, freezing, pixelation, garbled audio etc. etc. Up until last week I have not seen channel outages. Over the weekend and on Tuesday evening Marion had about one third of the channels go off air for about 10 minutes at a time. The number of channels is an approximation, I didn't take the time to do a complete audit.

It only seems like yesterday that Mediacom ran commercials very frequently that were critical of the picture and signal quality of dish systems. I have two friends whose families watch a lot of TV from a dish service and they both report that they have no signal issues except in the most severe snow or rain conditions.
--
Save water...drink beer!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20415237 Thu, 01 May 2008 09:15:39 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20414688 Turbocpe : Thought I'd update this thread. Although it appeared that the issues were becoming less common, there was still several times where I'd see the issues listed here occur.

Then, early this morning just before 1:30AM (05/01/08), the following channels went offair:

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They returned about 10 minutes later, then went back offair and have been offair for atleast another 10 minutes now.

I've heard from a lot of Mediacom TV customers that find this just as disturbing that a traditional service is becoming so difficult for Mediacom to provide.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20414688 Thu, 01 May 2008 02:46:56 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20188901 burner50 : I'm thinking he was referring to a Sun outage, where the satellite lines up directly in front of the sun and the sun overpowers the satellite signal, which generally happens 2x per year.... and it is also too early...

I'm thinking service tech is either not a tech at all or a 1st year installer at best...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20188901 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:27:43 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182911 Axilla : Thank you. i was trying to find the reference.

On the sunspot issue sunspots imped satellite to surface communication due to ionization of the ionosphere. As a ham radio operator I rely on that ionization to bounce signals off the ionosphere for long range communication.

However the opposite is true for TV applications, which rely on the ionosphere having low electron absorption to pass signals.

The current fact is that we are at solar minimum, and we seem to be stuck in this state for longer than is normally expected. For the most part TV communication is not interrupted at least until the cycle starts to rise.

For reference a solar sunspot cycle is generally a eleven year process from peak to peak or valley to valley. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182911 Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:09:57 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182840 Turbocpe :

said by Axilla

said by crcustomer :

if you have no interest, please do not read or post to this thread; leave it for those who understand sunspots.

What sunspots??? We are at solar minimum.

said by Service Tech

:

It is sunspot season again

It sounded like Service Tech

was suggesting the problems in this thread were "sunspot" issues. I think that's the 2nd time that had been suggested, which apparently is incorrect.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182840 Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:46:14 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182732 Axilla :

said by crcustomer :

if you have no interest, please do not read or post to this thread; leave it for those who understand sunspots.

What sunspots??? We are at solar minimum.

some links...
»www.eham.net/DX/propagation]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182732 Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:14:24 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182393 anon : service tech this is not a single customer's issue. the real knowledgeable people on this website; and at mediacom, admit the issues are system wide problems. all customers on mediacom's des moines head-end are affected.

if you have no interest, please do not read or post to this thread; leave it for those who understand sunspots. this forum exists for customers to ask questions and to interact with other customers. this thread has shown that the issues in the des moines head-end have moved to other head-ends in the iowa area.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182393 Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:11:30 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182410 Turbocpe :

said by Service Tech

:

My suggestion is that you go to your mediacom local office when you have a problem and meet with a supervisor to discuss you isssue instead of posting here

The thing of it is, it's not just my problem. It has been proved to be a global issue (Des Moines), thus, it impacts a large amount of customers. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182410 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:09:06 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182057 Service Tech : My suggestion is that you go to your mediacom local office when you have a problem and meet with a supervisor to discuss you isssue instead of posting here]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20182057 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:03:57 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20179745 burner50 :

said by Service Tech

:

It is sunspot season again

Thats got nothing to do with it.

EDIT: If you are INDEED an actual service tech from mediacom you would know the difference between sunspots and sunfade and the indications of such problems...

apparently you do not....

There is a serious issue with the des moines master headend as has been detailed here over and over again...

If the cable franchise people wont deal with it then Everybody needs to show up to the DSM city council meeting next week and make a LARGE ORGANIZED show of disgust. And repeat over and over again until the city puts some pressure on mediacom.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20179745 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:15:19 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20170144 Turbocpe : Well, this afternoon after 2:50PM CT, the following channels starting tiling, then freezing, then went offair:

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43 shown Poor Quality Signal then No signal.

They were offline for a good 10-15 minutes.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20170144 Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:04:11 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20126069 wth :

said by rekrdskratcher :

I have no video on channel 53 (in Iowa City, Cartoon Network)

Don't know about 53, but on 38 (animal planet) there's been a half inch wide noise bar in the middle of the screen towards the left side.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20126069 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:56:28 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20123886 anon : I've seen tiling more and more in the last month or so. Had to change out our cable modem (although probably unrelated, but anyway.) Now for the last three or four days, I have no video on channel 53 (in Iowa City, Cartoon Network) but I've got audio. Let me tell you, there is nothing more depressing than hearing Family Guy and not seeing it. We have, I believe, the expanded basic digital package (not going into a digital TV but with a cable box and some VOD options included.) Anybody else having channels with just audio and no video?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20123886 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:38:16 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20122260 Turbocpe : That it is. And while that may explain the past few days worth of outages, it does not explain the root issue that dates back to last summer, which Mediacom confirms to be at their head-end.

Curious, though. If these past few days have simply been "sunspot" issues, why aren't all the channels affected? While that's a rather large list that has been affected, for the past few days, it's not all channels.

Aren't those the digital channels that Mediacom rebroadcasts to the analog customers? That's been the root issue, the digital channels that Mediacom is redistributing to analog customers - their equipment continues to cause these issues.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20122260 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:10:37 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20122016 Service Tech : It is sunspot season again]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20122016 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:32:08 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20119855 JasonU : I actually had the TV on today to see this channel cutout exactly as Turbocpe has described. Today at 12:30 PM, the following channels went off - no tiling, just an abrupt cutoff. After hearing a couple of crackles, they came back on at 12:38.

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There may have been other channels affected, as I have some removed from my lineup. I'm on analog expanded basic, no DCT or anything, just using the TV's built in tuner. All my TVs were affected.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20119855 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:41:42 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20119829 Turbocpe : Anyone know how long the following channels were offline this morning/afternoon, then coming on after 12:39PM CT?

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They were offline for atleast 5 minutes, atleast. I happened to check channel 2 to see it was out. Normally, 17 is always a part of these issues, but it wasn't this morning and wasn't a part of the list above.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20119829 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:39:24 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20114690 danawhitaker : I noticed it too a little while ago, we were watching election coverage on CNN and poof. It happened on both the digital and analog sets.
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You're watching Sports Night on CSC so stick around...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20114690 Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:24:22 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20114586 Turbocpe : Well, today around 4:00PM CT, the following channels suddenly cut off for a few minutes. They then returned for a few seconds, and went back off for a minute or so.

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That's a lot of channels - on the analog only package (no digital receiver or signal issues to fault). Really, 4 days in a row of the same issue does not really make Mediacom look very good. :huh:]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20114586 Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:05:06 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20107799 Turbocpe : Well, this is the 3rd day in a row that just before 3:20PM CT, the following channels started to tile, freeze, and then go to a blank screen:

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Like yesterday, channel 43 is the only channel showing a "Poor quality signal." then "Unstable signal." and then finally "No signal." message. The rest listed above are simply blank.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20107799 Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:18:32 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20103783 danawhitaker : Anonymous - yes, the E3106 error. The model # on the bottom of the box is DC100X.
--
You're watching Sports Night on CSC so stick around...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20103783 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:08:40 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20102607 Anonymous : VOD E3106?

Let me guess you have a Pace box?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20102607 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:03:49 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20102051 Turbocpe : I hadn't noticed the audio sync issue recently, but the split second audio stutter that channel 23 (and sometimes 24) has is a bit annoying. Channel 23 does it each and every day, multiple times per minute on average. It's been that way for months. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20102051 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:29:25 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20101994 JasonU : I didn't have the TV on at that time today, but I've noticed since about Friday that the audio sync issue has returned on the aforementioned channels, mostly in the 20s on up. Some channels worse than others. Also, the tiling issue has returned, albeit intermittently.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20101994 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:17:49 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20101783 danawhitaker : I've been noticing periodic issues over the past few months, but nothing as extreme as yours, Turbo. However, I can definitely confirm today's outage of 17 and 23 at that exact time, as my daughter had just gotten up from her quiet time and I tried to turn on CNN to find a black screen, again. I only checked on the TV that doesn't have the digital box. I know it wasn't a very long outage, but I've definitely seen some long ones before. I often found that annoyingly, it always seemed to be one of the five channels I actually like to watch.

I get a fair amount of timeouts with my OnDemand service too, but nothing bad enough that just re-connecting to OnDemand doesn't fix it.

I've never bothered to call about the blackscreen or the tiling - which I've also experienced, usually on TLC for some reason. I probably should, just to let them know that they've got an issue - which they already know, I guess. But the squeaky wheels will hopefully get the grease. Eventually.
--
You're watching Sports Night on CSC so stick around...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20101783 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:49:22 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20101306 Turbocpe : Today was the second day in a row where just before 3:20PM CT, the following channels started to tile, freeze and then go off-air:

17
23
29
30
31
43

I noticed that channel 43 was displaying "Poor quality signal." then "Unstable signal." and then finally "No signal.".

The outage, both times, lasted for about 5 minutes.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20101306 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:24:04 EDT msg deleted http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19938226 anon : deleted by a moderator]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19938226 Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:23:22 EDT msg deleted http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19934789 anon : deleted by a moderator]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19934789 Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:45:57 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19885064 DRRofWDM : oh, who really cares about the OnDemand. I just like to bitch about how every service i have is failing, and failing faster than they will fix it. Franchise authorities don't care about the problem. Nobody cares. And since Mediacom denied me my credit that has been accumulating since my last credit in October for channels 2-78, that's just another problem.

But again, it doesn't matter. I started the other thread in an attempt to find out how big the problem was. My bad.

And even when I mention a point that I mentioned or at least recognized earlier in the thread, I got told 'welcome to the conversation' or whatever it was. The thread is 6 pages long, and I'm not going to read it everytime to see what I wrote several months ago.

But it doesn't matter. Sorry for discussing my problems. I could create a thread for each separate Mediacom problem I have, but that might take 7-10 threads. I just thought that i'd 'mention' other problems, but obviously, in most instances, retaining the purpose of the thread, which is tiling on channels 2-78.

So whatever, I'm done with Mediacom. Whether I cancel in a week or in 4 months when I move, its not going to matter. I'll get my credit. I'll move on. Nothing can be done about Mediacom. Which makes this thread pointless.

I'm done with Mediacom, and I'm done with this forum which apparently is lead by Officer burner50, aka forum police.

later all

DRRofWDM]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19885064 Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:24:06 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19873576 burner50 : Your on demand problem has nothing to do with the issues being discussed here. They are 2 separate services that have little to no effect on each other.

My guess is that the problem with your OnDemand is low SNR due to a crap signal hitting the box.

OnDemand could also be affected by over-utilization but I doube that this is your problem.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19873576 Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:08:26 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19843607 DRRofWDM : Thanks,

Yes, I this was discussed in the first few posts, b/c that was me. I hate to repeat myself, but this thread is 6 pages long. And we all know some people don't like to read it all, so I guess I repeated myself. Regardless, this is an issue.

Tiling now effects my OnDemand service. Usually, the signal would just be lost, and I wouldn't be able to finish whatever movie I was watching. But tonight, I just had tiling. Severe tiling.

This is a shout out to anybody who might be or who might know or have some sort of connection to Iowa franchise authorities. You have the power to put pressure on Mediacom to stop this and fix it!! I not only had tiling with OnDemand, but I had tiling with tonight's Greenbay NFL game.

This is a notice to Mediacom. Prepare for the worst, b/c I'm done with this. It's my life mission to correct what has been done wrong. The main issue remains with channel black outs and tiling on channels 2-78.

I'm sorry I may seem short with other members of this forum. I'm just so frustrated that no matter what I do, nothing gets resolved. There will be another thread regarding tiling, it will be a simple 'tiling' thread. Please sign there if you experience the problems that are shown here. They will be relayed to the Iowa Attorney general's office, b/c at this point, I'm running out of options of people to help me here.

DRRofWDM]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19843607 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 02:37:41 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19816994 burner50 :

said by DRRofWDM

:

these are strange issues for TV's that aren't on a digital cable box. I can only imagine the effect this has on my cable box.

Welcome to the conversation... I believ that was discussed within the first few posts]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19816994 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:32:23 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19816161 Turbocpe :

said by Anonymous

:

They are answering the phones. But it takes several attempts to get through.

I guess the system gets overloaded.

Understand that this is for Cable TV repair, not for Internet Support/Repair. Different rules and regulations apply. As I understand it, it is not "normal" to wait on hold for any length of time when calling for Cable TV repair, unlike the holds times that are "normal" for Internet Support/Repair. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19816161 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:30:28 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19815826 Anonymous : They are answering the phones. But it takes several attempts to get through.

I guess the system gets overloaded.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19815826 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:49:29 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19814385 marigolds : Anyone who tried to call in and got busy signals or put on hold, you might find this form letter useful that I handed off to Turbocpe. I used "this city" because people on the DSM headend might be in other cities. I would suggest contacting the cable franchise authority first, then sending this letter.
•

Dear (city council member's name),

On January 15th, 2008, a service issue with Mediacom cable expanded basic service apparently affected numerous customers in this city. When I called to report this issue, I [received busy signals for X number of redials and then] was on hold for over X minutes. I have since spoken to other Mediacom customers who had the same experience on this day. This appears to violate franchise rules regarding the timely answering of calls for cable television repair. [I have been in contact with the cable franchise authority and they were not able to satisifactorily resolve this issue.]
So, I am writing you today to ask that the city council look into this issue and request from Mediacom statistics on their answer time, answer percentage, and average hold time for our calls for repair originating from our city or concerning accounts within our city boundaries. If you like, I would be happy to address the council directly at a regularly scheduled work session or council meeting. If you wish to talk to me directly, you can reach me at:
(Your contact info. Include address in the city limits, a phone number, and an email address)

Sign,
(Your name)

CC: (each member of the city council listed separately and the city clerk)
•

Make sure you send the letter to the city clerk as well as the city council members. That way, it goes into the official correspondence.
Feel free to use as much or as little as you want of what I wrote and to pass it on to other people. Just remember that not answering the phones is a bigger issue from a city council standpoint than the headend problems.
--
ISCABBS - the oldest and largest BBS on the Internet
telnet://bbs.iscabbs.com
Professional Geographer
Geographic Information Science researcher]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19814385 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:02:46 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19810855 DRRofWDM : Yea, I can certainly confirm a crap load of off air channels tonight as well.

Ch 6 (fox) was working. I did get family guy in (ch 31) from 1000-1030pm, then switched to fox at 1030pm. At 1100 pm, went to watch Whose Line on Ch 32. It wasn't working, just a blank screen. Started switching thru channels, most did not work, just blank.

I called, and after the 16th time of getting a busy signal, got thru, then gave up after being on hold for 45 minutes.

And this was in my office (which means that my tv is not hooked up to a cable set top box).

In fact, just as I write this, literally about 2 paragraphs ago, I lost channel 44 (fox news). Which now is back. Still, these are strange issues for TV's that aren't on a digital cable box. I can only imagine the effect this has on my cable box.

Glad I didn't set anything to record tonight. We can only hope that tonights issues are maintenance related and in the end, the tiling is fixed.

Mediacom is going to owe me so much money.

DRRofWDM]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19810855 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 01:46:26 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19810436 Turbocpe : Well, tonight the following channels have been off-air:

02
17
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
35
36
37
40
41
44
45
47
48
49
50
52
53
54
55
57
58
67
69
70
72
77

Calling Mediacom, they have no information on the issue. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19810436 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:08:28 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19769723 Turbocpe : Anyone else notice the audio issue with TBS (channel 23)? For months now (about the time the rest of these issues appeared), the audio stutters frequently.

Watching the channel for a few minutes, and you'll notice when the audio stutters or cuts for a split second. It doesn't do it repeatedly in a row, but the stutter occurs day and night, through different shows and even commercials. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19769723 Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:14:27 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19727617 DRRofWDM : To whichever post above.

I have TV's both on and off of my cable box. Tiling effects the same channels on all TVs. The only difference is that tiling with the cable box lasts longer than on TV's just plugged into my wall.

Since Mediacom doesn't like giving credit without a service call, I have one coming soon. I'd say I'd report back, but I'm sure I won't learn anything from him.

DRRofWDM]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19727617 Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:18:45 EDT Re: MediaCom http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724908 Anonymous :

said by NonDigital :

recently subscribed and have a new hdtv. the picture quality is worse with Cable than without. Why? because MediaCom is NOT a true digital signal. The installation technicians informed me that "although MediaCom (in Iowa) advertises True Digital, it is in fact an analog signal and not digital."

You were misinformed. If you have a HD DCT all of you channels are digital. If you have HDTV with a built in HD tuner only the HD channels you can get are digital.

Or at least this is the case in Des Moines area.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724908 Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:11:09 EDT Re: MediaCom http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724669 burner50 : ummm... yes it is...

and i wouldnt trust one of those contracted installers as far as I could throw them.

RE: the headend issue. Its time to start calling the FCC and your lawmakers if the franchise authority wont do anything about it.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724669 Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:38:00 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724644 Turbocpe : I may have caught the tail-end of it with the channels you listed that I didn't notice at first (I only noticed channel 2 being completely off-air at first). When I checked, channel 26 was tiling badly with audio, but not off-air (though it might as well have been with how bad it was!).

A few minutes after my post, they all came back online. So perhaps that's why I seen some tiling because they were coming back online? But yeah, a lot where completely off-air. Looks like it lasted for slightly over 1 hour.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724644 Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:35:06 EDT MediaCom http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724516 anon : recently subscribed and have a new hdtv. the picture quality is worse with Cable than without. Why? because MediaCom is NOT a true digital signal. The installation technicians informed me that "although MediaCom (in Iowa) advertises True Digital, it is in fact an analog signal and not digital."]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724516 Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:11:30 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724472 Anonymous : They are OFF, not tiling, just blank screen!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724472 Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:05:06 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724451 Turbocpe : Anonymous, I was watching channel 2 when it went off-air just before 11:00AM CT. It's been 1 hour since, and it has yet to return. I just checked the channels you listed, and all are either completely off-air, or badly tiling.

Unlike previous times, when Channel 2 would go off-air or tile, channel 17 and numerous others would too. This time, it's not as many channels affected. I guess that's very slight progress?!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724451 Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:00:08 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724419 Anonymous : Well since I have several DCTs I watch digital channels most of the time but today (this morning) I checked my TV in the kitchen (no DCT) and following channels were off

No picture on 2, 26, 32, 35, 36, 40, 44, 49, 50, 52

Fuzzy 7, 12 - this is a 'recent' issue (about a month or so)]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19724419 Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:54:41 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19695196 anon : South side of DSM here and I'm having tiling problems similar, though not as bad, as those listed above.

I was wondering if anyone else has had problems with their internet service through Mediacom? I generally run around 8mbit. That's not a problem at all. At times I drop all the way down to 100kbit and my online time is more or less useless. I've been using »www.speedtest.net to check it using the recommended Minnesota site.

This week I've had my internet shut off completely (modem will not even connect) and today I'm getting anywhere from 25% to 84% packet loss.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19695196 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:32:58 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19664503 JasonU : This may as well have been me yesterday - I was attempting to watch the same 2 channels at the same time. It was basically unwatchable for quite some time, so I ended up shutting off the TV. Honestly, not a bad thing.

Between this, and rate increases...I'm considering canceling, again.

said by Turbocpe

:

Well, today (Dec 20th - Thursday), for the past half hour since 10:30AM, several (blocks) of channels on my analog-only service have been tiling.

Here's another example:
[att=1]

Yes, that's Mythbusters - distored. SpikeTV is doing the same thing. Every so often, sound cuts off and the picture shows digital issues like shown in the above picture.

I'm not simply complaining here, I am pursuing this through other avenues. This, honestly, is beyond ridiculous.

]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19664503 Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:03:46 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19664310 Anonymous : As far as I know digital service has improved. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19664310 Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:29:06 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19664244 Turbocpe :

said by Anonymous

:

Digital service is fine. Only people with analog service are experiencing this issue and if they don't get it fixed soon they probably won't have to.

They keep telling us that in 2009 they will go all digital!

Anonymous, wasn't the digital service affected as well? I had heard from a source it wasn't just analog customers seeing this issue, but digital customers as well (and not the common signal issue).

With 2009 being a year away, that seems like a ways away. But then again, it's been atleast 6 months with this issue already. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19664244 Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:18:12 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19664166 Anonymous : Digital service is fine. Only people with analog service are experiencing this issue and if they don't get it fixed soon they probably won't have to.

They keep telling us that in 2009 they will go all digital!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19664166 Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:05:40 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19663064 tsduke : I get a chuckle out of this pixelating issue. Mediacom, and all cable companies for that matter have advertised for years claiming this to be a big problem on satellite and now it's a problem for them.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19663064 Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:46:17 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19661142 Anonymous : Yes they will take it to the tech op manager and he will say 'we are aware of the issue and are working on it'.

Just a waste of time IMHO.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19661142 Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:40:10 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19660942 wardfan : Record it on a vcr tape and take it to the local office, they can look to see that you don't have a digital box and maybe they'll do something.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19660942 Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:04:34 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19657366 Turbocpe : Well, today (Dec 20th - Thursday), for the past half hour since 10:30AM, several (blocks) of channels on my analog-only service have been tiling.

Here's another example:
[att=1]

Yes, that's Mythbusters - distored. SpikeTV is doing the same thing. Every so often, sound cuts off and the picture shows digital issues like shown in the above picture.

I'm not simply complaining here, I am pursuing this through other avenues. This, honestly, is beyond ridiculous.

]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19657366 Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:53:43 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19634464 DRRofWDM : Just checking in, thought I'd make a couple of quick comments.

Yes, I still have tiling issues on channels 2-78, even on TV's with no cable box hooked up to them. The most recent instance was either basketball or football, it was in the final minute, and WHOOPS!!! The channel tiled and never came back until about 10 minutes later.

Sunspots, sunlight, ok. I stand corrected. It has to do with the sun.

Contacting the franchising authority probably won't do much. It certainly didn't do much here a few months back.

Blaming problems on the residence wiring is probably Mediacom SOP. It's their way of saying "we don't want to deal with it." Thankfully, 1 in 5 techs are extremely good and work hard. So sometimes it just takes multiple visits.

But back on topic, it is a wonder that Mediacom hasn't done anything with this tiling. But I have no doubt that this is a problem on Mediacom's end, and not something in my residence.

Good luck and happy holidays!

DRRofWDM]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19634464 Sun, 16 Dec 2007 17:39:22 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19617943 burner50 : nah... analog channel 114 is around 730 - 740 mhz and It is RF Suicide to have their internet and digitals above that, but i guess that would explain the quad shield cable everywhere...

Certainly not a 1400 mhz system

I agree maybe 860...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19617943 Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:48:36 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19615062 anon : My understanding was that their analog channels go up to 114 and that their internet and digital is above that... which would have to make it 1400. But I am not completely sure, so I'd be interested in what you find out...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19615062 Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:20:47 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19614260 burner50 :

said by OldCableGuy :

Why would you have anyone besides yourself do any of the wiring???

At that point I had been out of town for about 2 weeks and the wife was the only one home and she was bored watching the same 3 kids DVD's all the time. Plus I believe that it was required for the dish home protection plan. I'm not saying I couldnt have done it better, but just that I wasnt home and wasnt going to be coming home for a couple more weeks.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19614260 Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:20:07 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19612354 basenji : I highly doubt ImOn's system is a 1400mhz system. 860 maybe, ill check next time i am down in CR, but i think at best its a 750 system.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19612354 Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:39:28 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19611181 anon : Why would you have anyone besides yourself do any of the wiring???

When I signed up for Mediacom I had them sync the modem at the groundblock, show me signals above 10db with a signal meter and sent them on their way. My house, I'll wire it correctly, thank you. Same thing with Dish.

The only company I let touch my wiring is ImOn. They replaced all my RG-6 with RG-6 Quad Shield, and replaced my mediacom splitters with 5MHz to 2100MHz splitters. Their cable system only goes to 1400MHz, but still those are some nice splitters. ImOn guys are pretty smart, but then they're making about $20 an hour last I heard. (Still less then I made contracting, but I digress). They also offered to rewire a few of my phone jacks, if I'd help him fish the wire through the wall, because he was scheduled to be at the house from 1 to 5 (not get there between 1 and 5) and didn't want to drive across town to kill time. He even provided all the Cat5 cable it took to replace the old twisted pair.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19611181 Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:10:11 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19605069 burner50 : dish installers are bigger crooks... Installed my dish and ran all new cables on the outside, simply cut the old ones where they were run inside and told my wife that they charge extra to "remove" cables and that she would have to send somebody else at a later date to do so... looks like shit...

but my reception has been top notch]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19605069 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:25:27 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19604401 anon : I am having the same exact issues with Mediacom - DSM area. I had a Mediacom tech out who told me it was the splitter (put on by previous home owner) and the "crappy" wire initially installed by Mediacom and that the only way to fix the problem was to have all new wire installed. An electrician can do it internally or Mediacom can install around the outside of the home (ugly) for $20 an hour. What a racket! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one having the problem.

That dish keeps looking better and better...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19604401 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:46:48 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19582351 Turbocpe :

said by v_lestat

:

OMG

2 months later and your still dealing with this garbage Turbo?

i dont have the time right now to sit and read all of this but you would be SHOCKED how a quickly these issues can be resolved by buying some good RG6 and redoing the cables in your house.

In that case, I highly suggest you read the thread because you obviously missed some important facts. This is not a user-end issue. Mediacom has confirmed this issue is at their headend. Numerous customers have been affected.

So no amount of rewiring at the customer's home will fix the above.

Seriously, please take the time to know what you're replying to.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19582351 Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:31:42 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19582232 v_lestat : OMG

2 months later and your still dealing with this garbage Turbo?

i dont have the time right now to sit and read all of this but you would be SHOCKED how a quickly these issues can be resolved by buying some good RG6 and redoing the cables in your house.

i had used some small 3 ft RG58 jumpers for a long time and thought they were fine, along with a splitter.

i've always had picture issues VERY similar to yours, yes on the analog channels.
until one day i was redoing some speaker wire and video wire behind my entertainment center and i grabbed a few cables hooked to my splitter and the tv went totally wacko.

i let go and kind of wiggled them and it was ok.

each time i touched the cables and wiggled them the picture went nuts.

so i replaced the jumper and the splitter with a set i get from work here and wth! it worked!!

now i still have kinda crappy low end channels but not horrible. just light fuzziness every so often that i blame on the weather.

so think about that.

i also will say becuase of the moisture content every single splitter or butt connector in or outside your house has immediately become a suspect.
and replacing them all is a very logical thing to do.

but reading thru here and seeing more people with the same issues it pretty much points to one of the nodes or junction boxes up on a light pole.

but you never know until you start replacing cables.

shoot me a pm and i might be able to get you setup with some cables cheap ;)
--
System Specs
Intel Conroe Q6600 Quad Core @3.6ghz Water Cooled
Asus P5N-E SLI - 2gb Gslill 6400 HZ -Modded Audigy2 ZS w/ 3 AD8620 OPAMPS chips 8800 GTX 768meg
Logitech Z5300 THX 5.1 spk
Dell 2407 LCD and Dell 2007 LCD]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19582232 Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:10:04 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19573344 tsduke : --You could try filing a written complaint to your franchise authority.
or
--Walk into your local office and ask for the General Manager.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19573344 Thu, 06 Dec 2007 08:36:50 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19572104 wardfan : If they're aware of it then I'm sorry man, not much can be done at this point except waiting. It's total BS, but that's all that can be done. Contact a lawyer and find out if you could file a class action lawsuit, they are supposed to offer a WORKING and USABLE service as described in the subscriber policy, they're not, they know they're not, they won't/can't fix it in a timely manner. You pay them for a service that they are delivering poorly there must be something that can be done.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19572104 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:54:57 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19571909 Turbocpe :

said by wardfan

:

Back to the OP, it is a feed issue. It could be a master feed at the Head End, but since some of Mediacom's networks have outlying head end's that convert digital signals it could be your remote head end, if it's set up that way, doing it. What you need to do is find out who all has the problem in your area and start a petition, maybe have everyone call the same day with problems.

It's not just a small area problem. I've heard from people all over Des Moines that have the same issue with the analog channels 2-78, not to mention Mediacom has acknowledged this issue. Problem is it hasn't been resolved in several months. To the customer, it would appear Mediacom is doing nothing.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19571909 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:14:11 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19571859 wardfan : Back to the OP, it is a feed issue. It could be a master feed at the Head End, but since some of Mediacom's networks have outlying head end's that convert digital signals it could be your remote head end, if it's set up that way, doing it. What you need to do is find out who all has the problem in your area and start a petition, maybe have everyone call the same day with problems.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19571859 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:03:03 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19571776 burner50 : sunspots are NEVER a problem...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19571776 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:45:43 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19570913 Turbocpe : Thanks for the sunspot discussion, but people should understand that is not the problem here. This problem has been occurring for months.

The channels will experience skipping, freezing, tiling, audio/video sync issues, and sometimes go offair for lengths of time.

I've been noticing the audio is even more of an issue, lately. There's been a lot of stuttering. For instance, "and" might sound like an aaannnddd when it stutters. Been happening a lot, lately.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19570913 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 20:47:59 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19570568 burner50 : yep... kinda..

but my explanation decribes the symptoms and gives a probable occurence count]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19570568 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:52:24 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19570100 wardfan : Funny, that's exactly what I said.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19570100 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:45:29 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19570084 burner50 :

said by wardfan

said by drr :

2) for about 8 days about 2 weeks ago, sunspots effect channels 2-78. couldn't tell you why, but they do, and it happens every year. (of course, my problem has been since June, so its not the sunspots).

Sun outages happen on random "blocks" of channels but only 2x per year and usually gets fuzzy then goes completley out then get fuzzy and is normal.

the sun lines up behind the orbital satellite and the radiation oerpowers the RF radiation from the satellite so the terrestrial sat cannot recieve anything but the un radiation...

not sunspots... »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_outage]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19570084 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:43:10 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19570000 wardfan :

FYI it's not sunspots, it's actually the angle of the sun, it shines directly on the satellites and "blinds" the dishes. There's no way it could be sunspots BTW, they are even more unpredictable then Mediacom's phone service.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19570000 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:31:36 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19566354 Turbocpe : Well, surprise, this issue is still not fixed on Mediacom's headend.

Around 6:15AM CT, blocks/lots of channels on the analog cable TV package 2-78 started to freeze, skip, and "tiling". There was a brief time where certain blocks/lots of channels went black (offair).

I was able to take a picture of the TV a few times when it was in the middle of freezing and skipping.

You can see the digital artifacts on the screen that shouldn't be there:

[att=1]
[att=2]

Not the best examples. But since this issue has been a long-standing issue for months now, I'm sure I'll get more opportunities to get a better picture :huh:

So is Mediacom doing anything about this known issue at their headend?

]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19566354 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 07:31:58 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19519410 wafen :

said by burner50

:

Hey whats he deal there?!

The post you were replying to was off topic and moved, but because of the way the system works, I couldn't move your post with it.
--
Join Team Helix! Help Us Find A Cure! Sell the junk in your trunk!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19519410 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:12:15 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19510768 tsduke : What's the point in posting if it's gonna be moved or deleted?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19510768 Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:32:23 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19510324 burner50 : Hey whats he deal there?!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19510324 Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:18:34 EDT (topic move) [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19509958 wafen :
Moderator Action
The post that was here, has been moved to a new topic .. »[Cable TV] - Headend issues & Response]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19509958 Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:57:30 EDT msg deleted http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19509262 anon : deleted by a moderator]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19509262 Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:35:28 EDT msg deleted http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19509127 anon : deleted by a moderator]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19509127 Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:41:40 EDT msg deleted http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19501626 anon : deleted by a moderator]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19501626 Sat, 24 Nov 2007 17:20:51 EDT msg deleted http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19500102 anon : deleted by a moderator]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19500102 Sat, 24 Nov 2007 11:29:25 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19491315 cfossy : Here in Ottumwa, we aren't really having many issues but occasionally when you are watching analog channels they will just go black for a few seconds, and our channel 5 (KTVO Channel 3) will get really fuzzy and cut off.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19491315 Thu, 22 Nov 2007 12:08:51 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19488992 burner50 : mediacom should have that fixed by now... Utterly unacceptable.

If it is happening at the master headend then it is more than likely affecting the majority of the state.

Completley unacceptable for a "lifeline" service]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19488992 Wed, 21 Nov 2007 22:45:56 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19488261 Turbocpe : The tiling is not as concerning (in my opinion) as it is when lots/blocks of channels totally freeze and then usually go offair/black for minutes at a time. That's still an issue.

Today, for over 2 minutes, the following channels went offair/black:

17
23
24
26
28
29
30
31
33
35
36
40
42
63
71

I was watching one of the channels on the above list, when the video suddenly froze and the audio stopped. I then switched to another channel in the above list, and it was also frozen (video/audio). Then the channel went offair/black. I then was able to go through channels 2-78 and note that the above channels were all black/offair for over 2 minutes.

I can understand some tiling issues in this digital age, but I think it's ridiculous that Mediacom has frequent issues with blocks/lots of channels going offair/black for minutes and sometimes hours at a time.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19488261 Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:34:02 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19486162 Cableman32 : Well when they began sending out the digital versions of those analog channels, they also decided to use that digital broadcast to send to the analog services as well. Any problems they have with the Digital side can carry over to those analog channels.

Previously they were using an analog broadcast feed to send out these channels. I'm not saying that this is the reason, but that they have converted their entire delivery system for all of the 2-78 tier.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19486162 Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:09:28 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19484636 tsduke : Sorry I meant similcasting. Which I would assume will lead to switched digital at some point.

My main point was that it's not related to the 2009 deadline.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19484636 Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:07:47 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19484538 Cableman32 : Mediacom is not using Switched Digital at all right now. If you have a cable box, you are now watching all of the "Analog" content in digital.

What i was trying to say was that they may be taking these digital feeds and putting them into the analog space, which would explain why you would see tiling on an analog TV.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19484538 Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:52:57 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19484131 tsduke :

said by Cableman32

:

I think this problem is due to the conversion to digitized signals at the Headend. As you may or may not know, there is the upcoming turnoff of all analog broadcast signals.

This has been converted to early in Des Moines. I have noticed that these lower channels are MUCH more sensitive to signal related issues.

Since this appears to be happening on the analog(TV only) i can assume they are downconverting the Digital signals to analog and then put them on the plant. This is most likely why you are seeing macro blocking on your analog TV set.

Mediacom moving to switched digital has nothing to do with the 2009 deadline. It's all about reclaiming bandwidth for other purposes such as HD.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19484131 Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:31:07 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19484049 Cableman32 : I think this problem is due to the conversion to digitized signals at the Headend. As you may or may not know, there is the upcoming turnoff of all analog broadcast signals.

This has been converted to early in Des Moines. I have noticed that these lower channels are MUCH more sensitive to signal related issues.

Since this appears to be happening on the analog(TV only) i can assume they are downconverting the Digital signals to analog and then put them on the plant. This is most likely why you are seeing macro blocking on your analog TV set. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19484049 Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:03:21 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19474623 Anonymous :

said by burner50

:

thats actually surprising, usually headend issues get fixed rather qickly ASSUMING the people that the issue is being reported to actually believe it and arent just blowing it off as customer know-it-alls

No, not this one. It's been months now.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19474623 Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:54:51 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19474253 Turbocpe :

said by burner50

I'm told by sources that the "brass" are aware of this issue, and have been, for some time now. So Mediacom is indeed aware that this is a headend issue affecting analog (and digital) customers, and not just isolated to select customers or some false/inaccurate reports by customers.

And since I created this thread, I've gotten a lot of feedback from other Mediacom customers expressing the same issue with their analog service. A few have expressed the same with their digital service, but with the digital service, such issues reported here could be a local signal issue, or it could be related to this issue. I'm told that this issue does affect digital customers as well.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19474253 Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:47:30 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19474239 burner50 : thats actually surprising, usually headend issues get fixed rather qickly ASSUMING the people that the issue is being reported to actually believe it and arent just blowing it off as customer know-it-alls]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19474239 Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:44:57 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19473795 Turbocpe : Amazingly, 2 months after I have created this thread, the issues are still present. :huh:

I haven't watched TV much (never do - but even less lately), and I hadn't seen the issue for the past week or so. I thought maybe Mediacom was getting this resolved. Wrong.

Today, around 3PM those channels listed above started "tiling" off and on, audio was choppy of and on, then there was a brief few seconds where the channels went offline-black. As before, it effects about half of the channels on the analog expanded-basic. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19473795 Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:25:29 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19415973 Turbocpe : I agree with Anonymous. It's easy to confuse the issues.

If you see such issues on TV that has a "DCT", or is a digital TV, and you subscribe to the digital services, those issues can be the result of signal issues, which could be in your local area or home.

However, if you are seeing these issues on TV channels 2-78 without any "DCT", it is due to the headend issues that Mediacom is aware of. It affects all analog customers from the headend.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19415973 Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:45:57 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19415933 Anonymous : If you have a DCT/cable card that TV gets digital service. What channels are tiling on that TV?

This can be local wiring, line issue etc (signal). A tech can fix it or turn it over to the line dept if it's a line issue.

Tiling on TVs that have no DCTs connected and get only 2-78 is a headend issue. Not a local issue.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19415933 Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:39:12 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19414120 DRRofWDM : Well, I'm not actually sure.

The tiling occurs almost exlusively on channels 2-78. (other channels its so rare as to not bother me, say, maybe once a month for one second). Its my understanding that some of those channels are digital and some are analog. Turbo could answer that question for you better than I could.

Channels since last June that have had the problem include espn 1 and 2, amc, cartoon network, and fox news. That's all i can remember, though I believe like tnt or fx does it too.

Also, what I do know that furthers the digital v analog theory is that TV's I have that ARE NOT hooked up to the cable box also experience the tiling issues.

drr
~since mid june]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19414120 Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:13:52 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19413862 Anonymous :

said by DRRofWDM

:

...

I still get the tiling. Saturdays on espn seems to be the worst, but if I haven't mentioned it before, I haven't gotten just a ton of tv watching in for awhile, so saturdays is the largest block of time each week I watch TV.

keep us posted Turbo

drr

Do you get tiling on analog? Or is it digital?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19413862 Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:31:30 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19408729 DRRofWDM : local phone number?

Are you suggesting the phone number was not meant to be seen by you or anyone else who saw it?

I still get the tiling. Saturdays on espn seems to be the worst, but if I haven't mentioned it before, I haven't gotten just a ton of tv watching in for awhile, so saturdays is the largest block of time each week I watch TV.

keep us posted Turbo

drr]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19408729 Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:31:41 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19408522 Turbocpe : Just an update, I contacted KDSM to ask where the problem was with their frequent offair issue over the past several weeks-months. They informed me that WOI (local 5) burned up their transmission line, and because they share a tower, they (KDSM) are being required to power down to allow repair work. They said it should be finished, soon.

So that issue (KDSM frequently going offair) was not with Mediacom.

However, I have good word that the others issues I've listed in this thread, are indeed issues on Mediacom's headend and that their "brass" has known about it for quite some time now. And based on what I'm seeing, there still is no fix.

And on that note, after 4:30AM this morning, "blocks" (lots) of those same channels, yet again, started to "tiling" and went offair for a short period of time. Also early this morning, there was a weird issue, where a few seconds had shown some announcement, with a warning tone, for some "video alignment" message with a local phone number listed on those blocks/lots of channels. Oops! ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19408522 Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:56:29 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19373181 Anonymous :

said by burner50

said by drr :

~it is my dream to get rid of mediacom in this state

Good luck... Nobody else wants iowa... its a money hole that is difficult to turn a profit. Subscriber density is too low in much of mediacom's iowa systems.

...

BINGO!

People fail to realize this. For example Des Moines is the biggest metro area served by Mediacom. Their 'crown jewel' as they like to call it. Yet Comcast and other big players probably don't know it exists.

The whole idea of providing advanced services (Phone, HSD) to rural areas is flawed. Less potential customers (low population spread over huge areas), more equipment to maintain (higher costs) and once you increase the price to cover the expenses what people do? They switch to satellite and if available DSL.

The only 'good' thing about this idea is low or no competition.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19373181 Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:24:25 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19368778 burner50 :

said by drr :

~it is my dream to get rid of mediacom in this state

Good luck... Nobody else wants iowa... its a money hole that is difficult to turn a profit. Subscriber density is too low in much of mediacom's iowa systems.

Sweeping the lines means somebody is going thru them with a fine toothed comb, checking levels at every amp and verifying signal loss is what it should be, also checking the proper modules and pads in the amps and veriying the proper tap plates are in the proper places.
--
--Semi Trailers belong on Rail cars

--Giving you un-biased opinions about Mediacom, BBR, and life in general]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19368778 Fri, 02 Nov 2007 06:09:05 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19368253 Turbocpe :

said by noone :

It is amazing how accurate turbo is with the various channels that went off the other morning. There have been many issues with the new digital equipment. Sorry.
As far as direct feeds from the TV stations in DSM the only ones that do not have this is KDSM, and KCWI,KDMI( by the way this is the same station) and ION. They do go off the air quite a bit, whether or not TV Guide says so.

I do stand by the issues stated being on Mediacom's end and not the customer's, but the only one I do question is the KDSM, KCWI and KDMI channels. They seem to be in sync, meaning if one has problems the other two do as well. It's basically either all 3 go offline at the same time, or KCWI and KDMI will be offline and KDSM will show poor picture quality, and frequently go in and out.

However, they are going offline when there should be programming. For instance, speaking of KDSM, at 1:30AM Seinfeld is always on M-F as is Frasier on at 2:00AM. However, many times those programs will be interrupted by poor picture, or no picture at all. So, there should be programming on, and normally is, when they go offline. I'm just not certain if it's Mediacom's end or on the end off KDSM, KCWI and KDMI.

Those 3 channels are still regularly going out, or showing poor picture. The last few times I had planned to swap to rabbit ears to see if the programming was available over the air, but last few times this happened, I could not locate any old rabbit ears to test this.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19368253 Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:50:28 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19367715 anon : It is amazing how accurate turbo is with the various channels that went off the other morning. There have been many issues with the new digital equipment. Sorry.
As far as direct feeds from the TV stations in DSM the only ones that do not have this is KDSM, and KCWI,KDMI( by the way this is the same station) and ION. They do go off the air quite a bit, whether or not TV Guide says so.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19367715 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:03:06 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19363805 garn91 : tell them to fix whatever is wrong or you're going to cancel and go to satellite. I doubt that Mediacom will care, but this is ridiculous with all the unresolved and widespread problems you guys are having.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19363805 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:46:37 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19363569 Turbocpe :

said by drr :

So if the channels 2-78 is a more widespread issue, do you know if mediacom is doing anything about this? Or if Mediacom even acknowledges it? B/c if Mediacom acknowledges it and is working on it, I'll quit bugging them about it and just get my credits every month until its fixed.

drr of wdm

Yes, the channels 2-78 is a widespread issue. I've heard from many people, through this topic, with similar issues with their analog service.

I'm told Mediacom is aware of it, but that has been for the past several months. As you can see, it hasn't be resolved.

I wouldn't exactly suggest to "quit bugging them" about it, as obviously the issues are still not resolved. From the appearance of it, people have not done enough to make Mediacom get it resolved sooner. That might be changing.

By the way, do you think you could register here on BBR? Registration is free, and you don't get spammed at the email address you provide. I ask because I'd like to send you a PM about this, but PM can only be sent between registered users. PM = Private Messages.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19363569 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:10:59 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19363357 anon : ok, well, at least the last tech out said that proper signal levels were needed for the modem, as well as for the cable box. This guy approached it as though they may be caused by the same thing. (I only focus on internet in my discussions b/c that has effected me more than the tv cable recently). In fact, the guy said "the signal level to your modem is too high, and the signal level going to your cable box is too low." I thought this was a bit odd since they were on the same line, but hey, whatever.

So if the channels 2-78 is a more widespread issue, do you know if mediacom is doing anything about this? Or if Mediacom even acknowledges it? B/c if Mediacom acknowledges it and is working on it, I'll quit bugging them about it and just get my credits every month until its fixed.

drr of wdm]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19363357 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:38:54 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19363274 Turbocpe : drr, just to clarify, your issues with your internet connection aren't related to this topic. So Mediacom sweeping the lines to fix your internet connection won't fix the issues that are known with analog channels 2-78. Your internet connection is a digital service that does rely on proper signal levels in order to operate correctly. This is different from analog TV channels 2-78.

drr, it sounds like whoever is working with you may not understand how your analog channels work, if they imply that doing this work (sweeping lines in your area) will fix analog channels 2-78 issues.

Since this thread, I've been getting some private contacts from others in the Des Moines area who can confirm that Mediacom's analog channels 2-78 are experiencing a lot of issues over the past several months in the form of audio/video sync issues, outages, and picture quality issues (tiling).]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19363274 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:26:34 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19363087 anon : Well, just to keep things up to date.

Mediacom called me two days ago. Asked me if there work from two WEEKS ago had fixed my internet.

I told the guy, "NO, I HAD 15% LOSS THE OTHER NIGHT DUDE!"

There was a little more to that conversation, but I'm not sure he cared what my opinion of the problem was. He's supposed to send out, yes its true, another line tech. Because since the first line tech didn't fix it, I'm sure the second one will. Granted, this second one will be 'sweeping the lines.'

If anyone knows what 'sweeping' the lines means, please let me know.

And turbo, my splash plans are being pushed off now that mediacom has remembered me. I mean, they didn't ignore me for a month right?? I'm supposed to be happy with this right??

drr of wdm]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19363087 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:53:10 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19354889 anon : Mediacom can be aware of as much as they want, but they don't actually do anything about it.

With a earnings report coming soon, and rumors of financial instability (large debt as compared to income), I have serious doubts about Mediacom.

Turbo, I am with you. I promise you I will be making a big splash on this soon. I have a major test (required for my career) in Iowa City on Saturday which has delayed my plans to next week.

Financial issues, tonight while perusing the onscreen guide, noticed two of my hbo's knocked out. Checked my bill, sure enough, it wasn't lowered, but did state that mediacom had dropped those channels.

drr of wdm
~it is my dream to get rid of mediacom in this state]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19354889 Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:30:12 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19354109 drslash : That's astonishing. Mediacom's flagship service is this bad and they can't solve the problems?
--
Save water...drink beer!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19354109 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:19:23 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19353868 Anonymous : Turbo Mediacom is aware of the issue(s). Have been for months. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19353868 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:39:19 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19349071 Turbocpe : The volume thing is just another example to the list of the numerous issues that the headend appears to be having. I'd rather have that, than have nearly half of the analog channels be offair for 2 hours, or freezing/skipping so badly you can't watch them.

I've been informed that someone is looking into these issues. However, if that doesn't work out, I'm currently working on a plan to get some of the neighbors aware, and involved, who are also customers. It's pretty easy to look at a tap and see the tags to indicate a subscriber or not. I'd think the more people involved, the more attention to these matters will bring. Based on these, and other known or past issues, my confidence with Mediacom isn't that high. I think that's pretty reasonable. This not meant to be offensive to any of the technicians or tier support here. It's obviously out of your control. And I'll admit, I see effort being made by some Mediacom employees.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19349071 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:41:48 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19348971 burner50 :

said by Turbocpe

:

it's like either the budget was slashed at the headend, or experienced crew left the building.

a little from coulmn A and a little from coulmn B....

The audio level problem sounds like something major and the FCC regualtes this, but you have no way of proving this sooo SOL there...

mediacom recieves (almost) all of their channels digitally depending on your location and rebroadcasts them in all analog for basic cable subscribers.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19348971 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:18:00 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19339878 anon : ok, let's see if i catch all the comments. I was not aware that only some of the 2-78 channels were digital while others were analog. I would say that perhaps there is something to that.

You mentioned that you only have 'digital' effects problems with channels, which would suggest those channels are the digital ones. Since I primarily only watch the tv that is hooked up to my cable box, it's hard for me to determine.

Yes, I have noticed channels with only one side of audio. And yes, comedy central is certainly one of those channels. I believe that one only has the right side, but i haven't paid attention.

Mediacom has apparently completely forgotten about me. It will comeback to haunt them, I can guarantee that. I will remain active on this thread until then with any updates of anything they've done for me.

They did give me a credit today. So that's worth something.

DRR of wdm.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19339878 Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:15:20 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19336524 Turbocpe : Last night, actually early this morning (Saturday 1:30AM-) KDSM cable channel 6 was once again cutting in and out. After about 2:30AM, it went completely offline and stayed offline.

Odd thing is that usually KDMI and KCWI also have some sort of issue at the same time. Initially, KCWI was offair, but they had a prior announcement about tower maintenance. However, once they came back online and returned to normal, KDSM was still having issues for hours later.

Here's the picture quality for KDSM during all of this:
[att=1]

The rest of the channels looked normal so it defiantly wasn't a signal level issue on my end.

This KDSM, KDMI and KCWI may not be Mediacom's issue (not sure yet), but the rest of the issues do appear to be related to Mediacom's side.

]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19336524 Sat, 27 Oct 2007 22:26:00 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19336490 JasonU : I don't have much to add other than I've been experiencing exactly the same issues, and I'm also a WDM resident on the analog expanded basic package. Like Turbocpe, I'm often up early in the morning, and that's when I notice the worst issues, particularly freezing and/or channels going out for periods of time. The audio/video sync issue is a constant nuisance.

It's unfortunate that Mediacom can't ever seem to get their act together. :-/]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19336490 Sat, 27 Oct 2007 22:18:09 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19332278 Turbocpe : This early morning (Friday), while there wasn't any extended outages on half of the analog channels like there was on Thursday morning for nearly 2 hours, around 5AM there was several periods of time where those first batch of channels listed in my prior post, was skipping, freezing, and a few times went completely offair for a few seconds or minutes at a time. So it wasn't nearly as bad as Thursday. Honestly, Thursday was the first time I've seen half of the analog channels offline for that amount of time (nearly 2 hours). I don't think that is a frequent issue. But it was another thing to add to the growing list of issues with the TV side.

However, the skipping, freezing, audio/video sync and other digital artifacts on those analog channels have been common for months now.

As far as left or right channel (stereo), I can't say I've noticed. I have noticed, that for the past day now, a few of the channels (Nick, TWC) appear to be "muted", requiring the need to turn up the volume notably to hear the audio. Then, if you switch to another channel, like CNN, it's "blasting" loud. This wasn't an issue until just recently.

I really do wonder what's going on at the headend. I know it's an arm-chair view, but it's like either the budget was slashed at the headend, or experienced crew left the building. Multiple, long-term, issues for the past several months now.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19332278 Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:54:42 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19332103 anon : I've been seeing performance issues in my neighborhood as far as what appears to be bandwidth/headend issues. Certain HD channels freeze up momentarily, especially during prime time. I had neighbors with the same problem and now several months worth of complaints later and a couple of them switching to satellite, it's not happening quite as much, but it's still annoying. I think the fact that they freed up a bit of bandwidth is what's making it better. We've tried new cable boxes and wiring, we have a good S/N ratio. I just don't think their system can handle the demand being placed on it.

As far as the outages you are experiencing early in the morning, I will check mine out and let you know if I experience the same issue.

Has anyone seen certain channels in the 2-78 range that only have the left or only have the right audio channel? I have channels that randomly have this problem - Comedy Central, CourtTV, along with a few others.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19332103 Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:15:55 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19329020 Anonymous : The only problem I noticed is with ch 817 (local FOX affiliate KDSM in HD). Bright colors have white dots. My friend who used to have satellite had the same problem. I think it's a feed issue.

Turbo some people with analog service have the same issues with channels going out, no signal messages, audio/video sync issues etc.

BTW do you ever sleep? :p]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19329020 Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:14:08 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19326530 Turbocpe : Drr, I was able to check all the channels because the channels in the 1st list was completely off-air for nearly 2 hours Thursday morning (5:29AM-7:6AM). That gave me plenty of time to check all the other channels and note that the channels in the 2nd list were OK.

An interesting thing, is that customer service informed me that not all channels on the analog package (which is all I have) is not digital, only some of the channels are. This makes me wonder if the channels in the 1st list are the digital channels on the analog package, while the channels listed in the 2nd list are still sent in analog on the analog package. I'm not up to speed on how it all works. I just know some basics, and apparently, a bit more than some that supposed to be able to answer these questions at Mediacom.

And come to think of it, I've only noticed the freezing, video/audio sync and other digital issues associated with digital signals have been occurring on the channels in the 1st list. I do not recall any of the channels in the 2nd list experiencing those issues - albeit - in my opinion, they aren't exactly the top tier/quality channels so I don't watch them as much as the other set.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19326530 Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:31:23 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19324405 djdanska : I have been getting the "poor signal" message on a few channels over here too. Animal planet and fox news gets it a lot. (with stuttering, thank gosh i don't watch fox news). Our cbs channel looks pretty bad too. Channel 43, some religious channel gets barely watchable. White snowy dots all over the screen. I just got mediacom cable. I am used to comcast. They treat their system much differently then mediacom does. I never got any of these issues with them.
--
When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19324405 Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:12:27 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19322202 anon : Ok,

glad I decided to check this thread again today. I am in WDM, and WDM is my listed franchise on the bills. I can't say that when my cable has been particularly bad that I have gone around just all of the channels. I just know that I haven't actually had issues with any channels other than the ones in the 2-78 block. Channels like AMC, all ESPNs, cartoon network, comedy central, even the major networks. I haven't had any problems with my hbo or starz channels, or even HD versions of the major networks. (Well, one time HBO glitched on me on a nonHD channel, but "one time" I consider a fluke).

I don't get a lot of TV watching in right now, mostly just football saturdays and a little each night. I watched, family guy at 1030 last night on cartoon network. The picture quality was crap, but it never fully glitched out.

To update on my internet issues. They said they'd change signal levels and call me Monday. It's now Thursday, and getting ahold of my contact here in DM has proven impossible again. Looks like I'm heading back downtown to the offices. I bet they love me.

good luck to all, and I will check back here frequently.

ps, despite the name, i'm a mediacom customer, grm is my work isp.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19322202 Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:07:41 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19321451 Turbocpe :

said by drr :

my cable franchise authority seems to be completely clueless that they have any authority with mediacom. In fact, I don't even think they know that they can put pressure on mediacom. Makes it silly.

Last time I called them, they said "call the FCC." (which, its not an fcc matter, its a franchise authority matter.) So then I call the FCC for kicks, "call your local franchise authority." Great. Bureaucracy at its finest, and mediacom fits right in.

These issues aren't getting better. This morning a chunk of channels continuously kept freezing up, then going totally off-air. One occurrence had all the following channels off-air for nearly 2 hours, in one occurrence.

DRR, can you state what franchise authority is listed on your bill? I thought Des Moines and West Des Moines were actually different.

This morning (10/25), the following channels repeatedly kept going out:

02
23
24
28
29
30
31
32
33
35
36
37
40
42
44
45
47
78
49
50
52
54
55
57
67
70
72
40
41
44
45
47
48
49
50
52
53
54
55

It started around 4:39AM, then again at 4:49AM, again after 5:00AM, again around 5:18AM. Then, around 5:29AM those channels went off-air and remained off-air until 7:06AM. That's nearly 2 hours that the above channels were totally off-line.

Just before they would go off-air, they start breaking up, freezing, then go totally off-air. It has been occurring to the following channels for a few minutes at a time.

That looks like a lot, and is, but interesting it's not the entire 2-78 channel lineup. All channels between 3 and 16 are OK, and the entire block in the 60s is OK, as well as a few channels in between the ones listed above (like channel 51 - TV Land is not affected).

During the time that the above channels were off-line, the following channels were working normally:
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
15
16
18
19
20
21
22
34
39
43
45
47
48
51
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
68
70
73
74
75
76
78]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19321451 Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:59:49 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19318252 marigolds : LFAs are what the government and people make them to be.
If the LFA is a county, it is going to be tough to get much done because it is hard to get a county board to listen.
If the LFA is a city, pressure the council. Just show up and tell them about your issue and how the administrative staff was unable to solve it.
You can actually get some help by contacting a city with a competent LFA (Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, North Liberty, Muscatine, Cedar Falls, Ames) and perhaps asking them to right you something very brief about how they would handle the situation.
I don't know why WDM and DM are so incompetent, but sadly they are. I think they forget sometimes that they are city governments who need to deal with city issues and not just extensions of the state government.

Just remember that your worst case scenario is that the city council appoints you to do something. The Mediacom government reps are actually pretty good guys and seem to be just as annoyed with incompetent LFAs as the citizens are; they would much rather people lodge 1000s of resolved complaints than 1000s of people simply cancel their account because Mediacom drops the ball and then the city drops it too.
--
ISCABBS - the oldest and largest BBS on the Internet
telnet://bbs.iscabbs.com
Professional Geographer
Geographic Information Science researcher]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19318252 Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:56:33 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19318180 tsduke : Frachise authorities are a joke. Call the number for Waterloo and they don't enven know who to direct you to.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19318180 Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:45:21 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19314306 marigolds : Is your LFA a city, county, or other entity?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19314306 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:26:34 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19313741 anon : my cable franchise authority seems to be completely clueless that they have any authority with mediacom. In fact, I don't even think they know that they can put pressure on mediacom. Makes it silly.

Last time I called them, they said "call the FCC." (which, its not an fcc matter, its a franchise authority matter.) So then I call the FCC for kicks, "call your local franchise authority." Great. Bureaucracy at its finest, and mediacom fits right in. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19313741 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:54:43 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19304947 burner50 :

said by Turbocpe

:

wouldn't any tech with basic knowledge know that the issues I described above ( picture freezing, digital artifacts, video/audio sync issues, locals going off air (KDSM,KDMI,KCWI) ) on an analog-only package (such as myself) are not going to be anything within the customer's side?

hence mediacom's biggest problem... call center techs don't know how to do anything but schedule a service call for the most inconvenient time available when techs probably are not working anyway...
--
--Semi Trailers belong on Rail cars

--If my post offended you, then I have done my Job]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19304947 Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:48:19 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19300140 marigolds : Systematic cable tv issues really need to go to the local franchise authority listed on your bill.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19300140 Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:29:30 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19287614 anon : Sir,

in an effort to see if anyone else had internet issues in WDM, i saw your post on the tv cable. I have had those similar problems since June. I have the digital cable box, but I have other TVs which are not hooked up to the box. Here's what I can tell you..

1) my digital cable box and tv's without the cable box behave the same, although it is more exagerrated on my tv with the cable box

2) for about 8 days about 2 weeks ago, sunspots effect channels 2-78. couldn't tell you why, but they do, and it happens every year. (of course, my problem has been since June, so its not the sunspots).

3) channels 2-78 are now digital, even for you. What that means is they come into mediacom as digital. For instance, i can now see pixellation on tv's that are not hooked into the cable box. It is analog going into your tv. But digital going into mediacom's infrastructure. hence, the problem is on their side, not the wiring in your house.

4) Mediacom has little to zero communication between the call center and their actual offices in DM. I learned that b/c techs coming to my house had a clue, whereas techs in the call center repeatedly told me that they are not told what new hardware is getting put in (for example, a new node getting put in on the west side. I finally learned its not, which is hilarious b/c they are overloaded, which various techs have admitted).

Quite honestly, most people do not report these types of problems, because when you think about, with a minimum hold time of 25 minutes just to get thru to the call center who will do nothing but send a tech to your house, is not worth the hassle.

If you want results, or if you want to be sure they know, walk right into their office on Ingersoll, and demand to see a tech supervisor, and inform them of the problem. Trust me, they will let you do this, though they may give you a hard time.

I hope this helps and lets you know you aren't alone. Also, be sure to DEMAND credit. And fight them every step of the way if you have to. But really, the call center handling credits is much easier to work with.

good luck]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19287614 Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:14:32 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19286017 Turbocpe : Anonymous, wouldn't any tech with basic knowledge know that the issues I described above ( picture freezing, digital artifacts, video/audio sync issues, locals going off air (KDSM,KDMI,KCWI) ) on an analog-only package (such as myself) are not going to be anything within the customer's side? There is no digital equipment here. Signal levels would not cause any of those issues on my list.

That list is a cumulative list from the past several months. I'vee never seen so many issues on the TV side in all the years as a customer, as I have in the past several months. And I'm not watching TV any more than I was in the past.

As well, those issues largely occur during late night.

I would think if it actually gets to the stage of a schedule technician visit, the technician would cancel the ticket on the spot knowing not one of those issues would be anything remotely on the customer's side - analog only speaking.

I guess I view this largely the same as when Mediacom (and probably any other ISP) schedules technician visits (during the day) for reports that concern performance when the NOC probably knows very well that there has a utilization issue. I understand that it's probably standard practice, but it's a waste of Mediacom's and the customer's time. Especially in this case. As this is an analog only system that I subscribe to, not one of those issues listed can be resolved with a technician visit because not one of them is on the customer's side.

I guess I was expecting a little effort and time from the Customer Service side to check to see what types of reports are in about the Des Moines headend, and provide some "comfort". Instead, this approach is similar to denying the issues even exist.

These types of issues I listed has to be affecting a lot of customers in the Des Moines area. I'm guessing not many are reporting them, and because they are infrequent, and commutative, perhaps they're going under the radar.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19286017 Fri, 19 Oct 2007 08:50:27 EDT Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19285819 Anonymous : They do that sometimes. I don't know if it's the lack of experience or just trying to cut down the time of call. If a tech gets out he will check your wiring and note what channels are having issues.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19285819 Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:44:55 EDT [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19284768 Turbocpe : After seeing so many issues with the cable TV service here in Des Moines for some time now, I contacted Customer Service through email to list the issues, and ask for some information.

The following is the issues I noted:

1) WGN (cable Channel 21) would often display a "Poor Signal" message for sometimes hours at a time. - This appears to have finally been resolved after weeks of seeing this issue.

2) Intermittent video/audio sync issues that have not been isolated to any one channel, and often displayed on multiple channels - though never all of them.

3) There's been a lot of video picture issues that are
associated with digital issues - freezing, skipping, digital artifacts, etc. Early this morning, a batch of channels (including CNN) were doing this so badly the programming was nearly impossible to watch - though it didn't last very long.

4) KCWI, KDMI and KDSM would go offline atleast by 1:30AM and remain off-air for hours at a time. They shown programming available, and normally do have, programming available.

All these issues have been, at one time or another, intermittently going on for sometimes hours per day, for multiple days. Some of those have lasted for several weeks at a time.

Please note that I have the expanded-basic TV subscription, which is analog. I made this clear when I contacted Mediacom's customer service. I do not have any digital equipment as I don't subscribe to any digital packages from Mediacom.

I even spoke with a local technician in the area one day, and asked about some of these issues. He informed me that he was aware of these issues from the field, but didn't have a lot of information to provide.

The response I received from Mediacom's customer service was that I need to schedule a service call to have these issues fixed.

It appears to me there was either no effort made, and that was the "knee-jerk" response, or someone is not experienced enough to understand the system? How does scheduling a service visit fix these issues? I'm not using any digital service, which is often associated with these types of issues that could be customer related. Again, I subscribe to analog-only service.

Is this normal response from Mediacom? Only reason I contacted the Customer Service was after I did see a fairly educated, with effort, of a response given when someone inquired about digital channel releases. I figured the department would produce some effort. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19284768 Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:31:07 EDT