Is anyone else having problems with snowy reception on Channel 8 -KTUL on their Cox Cable (Non HD).
Seem several TV's in different homes all in south Tulsa are having issues. HD is ok.
I have always had problems with snow on channel 8.
I have Cox internet and their basic 11 Dollar service on my Kitchen T.V. And yes channel 8 is grainy. Has been for quite some time.
It looks great on my DirecTV though. Can I interest you boy's in switching over ?
Would love to have DirectTV! Can you make it work for storm reports when it rains??
If you have a digital cable ready TV, use the digital version, not the analog version. Cox has three versions of all the locals available in the clear. They have the analog signal, the digital SD signal, and the digital HD signal. Any of the boxes they've given out in the last 5-6 years will use the digital signal rather than analog.
If your TV isn't digital cable ready, you should be thinking of having a new set in your future, unless you don't mind having a box. Cox isn't going to keep analog around forever, although they do have 2 or 3 years left of their promised period of continuing to provide it. (much to my annoyance) It'll probably be a long, long time before either Cox or the satellite companies start providing boxes that don't support SD analog outputs, so if you don't mind paying for the privilege, keeping the analog sets won't be a problem.
For those interested, Cox introduces 'Multiroom Shared DVR' this week, along with their new guide system. This appears to be the first full rollout in country of this system, as they've been testing in other markets for some time now.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=52&articleid=20101127_52_E1_CUTLIN966869
Hopefully it turns out better than at&t's first couple of tries. Supposedly they've finally got things working right, so Cox needs to come out strong.
Quote from: Hoss on November 29, 2010, 02:13:53 PM
For those interested, Cox introduces 'Multiroom Shared DVR' this week, along with their new guide system. This appears to be the first full rollout in country of this system, as they've been testing in other markets for some time now.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=52&articleid=20101127_52_E1_CUTLIN966869
That puts them only, what, two or three years behind DirecTV?
And that DVR looks like a VCR from the 80's.
Quote from: patric on November 29, 2010, 02:23:45 PM
That puts them only, what, two or three years behind DirecTV?
The supreme irony is that they boxes they've been handing out have been capable of this since at least 2006, possibly longer.
Quote from: heironymouspasparagus on November 29, 2010, 12:36:34 PM
Would love to have DirectTV! Can you make it work for storm reports when it rains??
"Rain fade" is when a dense storm cloud passes between you and the satellite, and attenuates the signal sometimes to the point that the receiver stutters or looses signal for a few seconds. It takes a pretty active storm cloud to do that, but if you absolutely can't tolerate even a second of interruption, you can get an aftermarket dish that has more surface area and isnt attenuated as much.
The way local meteorologists work here, if you miss a few seconds of a warning, it will be repeated enough times that you will eventually get it.
Quote from: nathanm on November 29, 2010, 02:32:50 PM
The supreme irony is that they boxes they've been handing out have been capable of this since at least 2006, possibly longer.
Yup, but the problem was not having enough bandwidth in the TV stream to effectively use it.
I'd still rather use Cable vs Satellite simply because when it's windy or raining, bye-bye to a reliable picture on satellite.
Quote from: Hoss on November 29, 2010, 02:42:38 PM
I'd still rather use Cable vs Satellite simply because when it's windy or raining, bye-bye to a reliable picture on satellite.
If you loose satellite picture because of wind, it wasnt installed right. Call them out and insist they correct it for free.
Now, there's not much Cox customers can do but wait a few hours when a car slides into a utility pole and takes out the cable...
Quote from: patric on November 29, 2010, 02:47:05 PM
If you loose satellite picture because of wind, it wasnt installed right. Call them out and insist they correct it for free.
Now, there's not much Cox customers can do but wait a few hours when a car slides into a utility pole and takes out the cable...
My next door neighbor switched to satellite from Cox due to the amount of cars sliding into the local utility poles and taking out cable. I just put up with it.
;D
Quote from: Hoss on November 29, 2010, 02:42:38 PM
Yup, but the problem was not having enough bandwidth in the TV stream to effectively use it.
The whole-home DVR uses MoCA (ethernet over coax, essentially) in the 1100-1250MHz range to transfer data from the DVR to the other boxes. If there had been software they liked, they could have done it in '06. The amount of bandwidth to your home (or the frequencies the cable plant supports outside your house) has nothing to do with it. That only matters for getting the programming to you.
DirecTV also uses MoCA to network the boxes, and U-Verse usually uses HomePNA over coax or twisted pair, but will use Ethernet if you have it available at all your TV locations.
It's not a network DVR like what CableVision has done, where there is no DVR box in your house, just a server at the headend.
Quote from: patric on November 29, 2010, 02:47:05 PM
If you loose satellite picture because of wind, it wasnt installed right. Call them out and insist they correct it for free.
Now, there's not much Cox customers can do but wait a few hours when a car slides into a utility pole and takes out the cable...
Then every body I talk to who has satellite obviously has idiots for installers, because there's not one of them that tell me that the higher winds don't knock their signal out.
But I'll take that random 'car into pole' which is usually fixed fairly quickly over the knowing that when rain or wind comes, I'll be having reception issues.
Quote from: Red Arrow on November 29, 2010, 02:53:22 PM
My next door neighbor switched to satellite from Cox due to the amount of cars sliding into the local utility poles and taking out cable. I just put up with it.
;D
+1
Quote from: patric on November 29, 2010, 02:47:05 PM
If you loose satellite picture because of wind, it wasnt installed right. Call them out and insist they correct it for free.
Now, there's not much Cox customers can do but wait a few hours when a car slides into a utility pole and takes out the cable...
Patric, for the most part, your posts are insightful and I like what you post.
Please do NOT turn into Tim Huntzinger.
Please!
It seems that a proper installation will get a good signal as long as you don't have high winds. Problem is, elsewhere what they consider a high wind, we consider a little breezy. I've set up Dishes that only lost signal during really bad storms, but it can be tricky, and it has to be mounted to something that does not move, at all, so kinda out of the question for people that have them stuck on poles.
Quote from: custosnox on November 29, 2010, 04:39:29 PM
It seems that a proper installation will get a good signal as long as you don't have high winds. Problem is, elsewhere what they consider a high wind, we consider a little breezy. I've set up Dishes that only lost signal during really bad storms, but it can be tricky, and it has to be mounted to something that does not move, at all, so kinda out of the question for people that have them stuck on poles.
And I really have nothing against them, other than that they have that quirk about going out during storms. Hell, when I was younger I watched satellite at my parents house from an 8-foot aluminum C-Band dish (which is now the property of William The Artist) and remember having to get out in snowstorms to sweep the dish because that degraded the signal. The large C Band dishes didn't have that issue because the accuracy of holding the signal was loose enough that some movement during storms didn't create any issues. These smaller dishes using whatever-band evidently have less off a degree of error in them.
I don't get it. I used to have DirecTV and never once had an issue with wind, only with very heavy rain. By contrast, my aunt's Dish Network service wasn't looking too hot on Thursday when there was some light to moderate rain. It glitched quite regularly. I don't know if it's because her locals are on low powered satellites or what, but it wasn't too nice.
A 10 foot C band dish should be much more affected by wind than a 18-32 inch DBS dish. The increased size presents more area to the wind and narrows the beamwidth such that it must be much more accurately aimed. Even worse would be Ku or Ka on a big dish. (Beamwidth and gain of a dish are inversely proportional to frequency) A DBS dish can handle being off by half a degree or so.
If you've got the dish nailed to a tree, it's going to be very unreliable. If you have it mounted on a pole in a bucket of concrete, it's going to be slightly more reliable. If you have it mounted on a 3 or 4 foot steel pole set in concrete, it shouldn't be a problem. Even better is on your roof, given the shorter pole, but then you get into water leak issues if your installer turns out to not be very good.
Sometimes during the week I visit in OKC where there is DirectTV. The only big reception problem with that installation is rain. Even a moderate steady rain can cause the glitchies. Heavy rain, forget it.
Wind blowing hasn't been noticed.
Quote from: heironymouspasparagus on November 29, 2010, 07:20:07 PM
Sometimes during the week I visit in OKC where there is DirectTV. The only big reception problem with that installation is rain. Even a moderate steady rain can cause the glitchies. Heavy rain, forget it.
Wind blowing hasn't been noticed.
The light to moderate issue seems isolated. I hear about it from time-to-time but my personal experience is it's got to be one bad arse storm to lose my signal.
Neither myself nor FMC has a problem with it at our homes in Tulsa and MWC.
Quote from: Aa5drvr on November 29, 2010, 09:21:14 AM
Is anyone else having problems with snowy reception on Channel 8 -KTUL on their Cox Cable (Non HD).
Seem several TV's in different homes all in south Tulsa are having issues. HD is ok.
Are you close to the Channel 8 tower.....
Quote from: Conan71 on November 29, 2010, 08:31:09 PM
The light to moderate issue seems isolated. I hear about it from time-to-time but my personal experience is it's got to be one bad arse storm to lose my signal.
Neither myself nor FMC has a problem with it at our homes in Tulsa and MWC.
A little off topic question, but one I'd like to ask nonetheless.
When FMC becomes MC, where are you two going to make your domicile? Here? MWC? Split the difference and move to Stroud? ;D
Quote from: Hoss on November 29, 2010, 09:25:38 PM
A little off topic question, but one I'd like to ask nonetheless.
When FMC becomes MC, where are you two going to make your domicile? Here? MWC? Split the difference and move to Stroud? ;D
That's still up in the air. That's why there's still an "F" in the acronym ;)
I've been working on developing a sales office in OKC, but an unforseen uptick in our oil patch business is keeping me closer to Tulsa. She's got a great gig in Norman as an insurance agent so Stroud might not be out of the question. I always wanted to have a vineyard and microbrewery in a bucolic setting, she's always wanted to have a B & B. There are some guest ranches which are self-sustaining out that way.
It will work out one way or the other or something completely unforseen we haven't thought of will come up.