US Cable Support → Mediacom > Serious HD DTA issues

Serious HD DTA issues

I am a basic cable user in Albany, GA who tried switching from clear QAM reception to the Pace HD DTA via HDMI to a Samsung LN37D550 HDTV. The device updated and Mediacom activated it but there are serious problems. The five local channels which I used to receive in HD now are displayed in 480P. Also, using the remote control HDMI menu output and resolution provide no options other than 16x9 output and 720P resolution. No matter what picture mode I use or which channel I tune to every video fails to fill the screen. In effect I'm left with a 28 inch SD TV instead of a 1080P 37 inch HDTV.

For now, I'm going back to clear QAM.

Are you still having issues with the picture on your DTA? If so, can you send me an IM with the serial number of it?

Thanks for the response. A PM with the S/N has been sent. The unit is a Pace DC60Xu. I haven't retried the unit since I couldn't receive HD signals or change picture settings. I just went back to QAM. Tuesday morning I will move back to the Pace unit and repost.

Thank You for the info.

I am now running the Pace unit. The Pace menu now lets me adjust the HDMI menu settings for resolution to Auto, 1080i or 720P but none of those settings yield any improvement.

On clear QAM I can receive 5 local channels in HD and many SD channels were received in 16x9 video that I could Zoom1 to fill the screen perfectly.

With the Pace unit I get no HD programming and there isn't a single channel that can be watched full screen with 16x9 video. On every channel my only choices are proper aspect ratio surrounded by large black bands or partially obscured distorted video. There isn't even one watchable channel.

It sounds to me like Mediacom doesn't have HD programming enabled yet for HD DTAs and that your unit is still only seeing SD DTA programming. In other words, they are not doing anything different yet, and only using the HD DTAs for their HDMI connection (for users who want that) and encryption, and not for their programming possibilities yet.

Yeah, here in Albany, GA we are still getting analogue signals. Maybe things will be better after the transition.

I've been posting on the support forum hosted by Mediacom. Moderator Drew reinitialized the unit but still no HD. I asked Drew to set me up to get a multicast CableCard for an HD Homerun Prime. If I can't get good reception from the HD DTA at least I'll have another option.

In the meantime, I'm going back to QAM.

Thank You for the update. Let me know here if you have any other issues once you get the CC.

Any idea when Mediacom may get HD-DTAs into service in the Cedar Rapids market? Being stuck with QAM on a couple tvs is getting a bit old(not going to spend even more $ for more STBs).

hawkeye_wx,

From what I can see it looks like HD-DTA's are available in your area.

If the local CR office does have HD-DTAs, shouldn't there be some kind of announcement? Otherwise, nobody would know about it.

I went to Mediacom and picked up an HD DTA today. I got it hooked up properly via HDMI, but I'm not getting any HD channels. They are all SD. I don't know who makes the box. The model # is DCI401GEU2.

In case anyone is interested(I'm sure many/most customers will be using these HD DTAs at some point) Mediacom did get my issue fixed and I now get all the family cable hd channels through the HD DTA. Ultimately it was some kind of signal Mediacom had to send to the box that unlocked its hd capability and gave me access to the HD channels (802-879).

I'm happy to see they were able to get this resolved for you. Please let me know if you need anything else.