Home Improvement → CATV issue- box freezing and reboots.

Charter local has been making an honest effort the whole time. They have rolled truck after truck trying to diagnose and fix this, but the intermittent nature of the issue made it really tough to pinpoint. I don't think any one specific data point was the "tell", but a collection of all the facts gathered over time that drifted all of us in a general direction that ended up in the headend. I do think when we all realized how many homes this affected, the focus shifted to a much broader problem search. And at the end of the day, they found the problem(s) and corrected them, and that's what really matters.

In doing so, Charter has earned my continued business, and it's well deserved. They didn't ignore my trouble calls, and yes, I provided far more help and guidance than the average customer (let's be honest... most people would have either bailed to put up a satellite dish, or just lived with it, accepting the glitch as is), but they did take my data and info and used it inevitably to fix this entire service group. I know of at least one neighbor who was ready to bail and get a dish, but now has also changed their opinion of Charter and will stay with them. They have earned a great support rep in this community, regardless of what the rest of the company is doing.

When a company does something dumb, they deserve scorn, and when a company does something well, they deserve praise. For this, they deserve praise. In this case, Charter local deserves heaps of praise.

Good to hear you issue was resolved, now when BBR charter cable forum members stumble into the home improvement forum it may help them as well

Spoke too soon...

After days of flawless use, I rebooted a box today, and now after it booted, it won't play all my subscribed channels. It gives me the "Temporarily Off Air" screen. My other 2 boxes were playing all channels fine while that rebooted box was telling me that those channels were off air. To test if it was a bad box or the cable system, I rebooted both of the boxes that were working.. and now they also display the same off air message. All three boxes now play local channels, VOD, Music Choice... but won't play Sprout, HBO, Showtime, etc.. it's almost as if rebooting made them lose the authorization to play those channels..

Looks like one problem was fixed and another created..

I learned long ago... Never ever reboot/update a computer or reboot a cable box, direct tv receiver or other electronic device that does not absolutely need it to function.

Okay... I gotta ask? Why the hell would you reboot something that was working, in your words, "flawlessly"?? Wottsamatta... you can't stand prosperity???

It's not like it wouldn't have happened eventually anyway. Better now than later.

Most likely just a coding issue, and should be able to fixed fairly easily over the phone. Don't let them tell you the boxes need to be replaced. With all the CSR's in and out of your account who knows what they did.

By now I would have sent all their stuff back and bought an antenna. That's a lotta grief!

I was moving around some furniture, as I was finally getting around to getting some projects done. I needed to unplug a box and move it and a TV, and when I plugged it back in... not all my channels returned. I then tested the other boxes to see if it was a common problem... and it was.

I called the 888 number, and they wanted to roll a truck to switch out the boxes (which I knew was not needed) after sending a few hits did not reset the boxes. CSR really didn't know what to do about it. I got in touch with my contact at Charter local, and they needed about a day to get things squared away... and now everything is back to normal... and I'm hoping it stays normal! All I really want is the system to work as expected. Internet and phone are great, as are most channels... it's SDV that's been the glitchy problem.

Looking back over this thread, I think nunya hit it on the money, SDV feels very "beta". I think in time it'll be a good alternative to the traditional cable model, but it seems to be a technology that is still a work in progress. In any event, Charter local did fix it promptly again.

Maybe in Charters implementation, not the norm among all providers.

I'm knocking on wood as I write this, but I think things have been ironed out. Only one issue left:

What are ideal signal levels for a digital STB? (Tuners, FDC and RDC)

My signal off the ground block is really hot, and the shortest run from my amp to the DVR on that run has the tuners at about +15dBmV on most frequencies (and yes, I know to take a STB's signal readings with a grain of salt, but that is pretty high). That's scraping the upper level of acceptable strength, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to pad it. That box has a tendency to reboot (regardless what DVR is there... it's a signal strength issue).

Ideally though, what signal strengths should I be looking for for the tuners, FDC and RDC? Should I be most concerned with getting the tuners as close to zero as possible? Or should I be looking at FDC and/or RDC primarily?

+15 is way too high on digital channels. RDC should be no higher than 55 ish, FDC you want under 10 I would say.

That DVR I would put a 10db pad on it.

I agree, a 10dB pad sounds about right. What is the minimum RDC dB level I should shoot for? I'm under 30 on all boxes, but amazingly, I'm not really having problems with the headend hearing me. I've got plenty of overhead to pad to bring up the returns to a higher level.

Just a thought has anyone thought about the electrical power fluctuations? We live in a neighborhood with a lot of solar power setups and that creates a power cycling of some sort that imitates brown outs around us. That could be an issue not considered.

You might be on to something.

If it's working, I'd leave it alone on that aspect. The boxes are usually wrong on that figure.

It's a good thought, but there aren't too many solar setups in these parts.. Plus it's one box primarily, and it's a really hot signal off the pole. If it was all three, I'd agree, but I suspect that incoming signal is just too hot on that one STB and it's causing the box to reboot periodically.

I'll pad it, and if it keeps happening, then I'll look into power issues. Thanks for putting on your thinking cap!