HI!
I've been struggling with the poor quality of the Cox HD picture and audio for a couple of years now. The picture gets blocky, and often the audio drops out for a few seconds (or more). It tends to happen once every 15-30 minutes (although sometimes it's OK for a few hours).
I have the Scientific Atlanta HD DVR box, model Explorer 8240HD, which I rent from Cox. It's installed in a place with reasonable air flow (doesn 't seem to overheat). I've had the box replaced 3 times, and technicians have come out 4 times. In their last visit the installed an amplifier, which helped for a while but now the problem is back.
Only the HD channels have problems. It doesn't seem to be any particular HD channel. The standard definition channels are fine, and I've resorted to recording both SD and HD in case the HD is unwatchable.
So, there are 3 possibilities:
1) Something wrong with my wiring or the signal strength (I have new RG6, but it's rather long - probably 150+ feet.). But the signal strength seems OK, between +2 and +7 dbmV according to the cable box, depending on the channel.
2) The Scientific Atlanta box is just a poor design and it's prone to these issues on HD. I've been thinking of getting a TIVO HD DVR, if this is indeed the case. But I wanted to make sure it was going to fix the problem before I spent the money.
3) The program material coming from Cox is bad on the HD channels, even before it gets to my house.
Has anyone on this forum experienced this (or know of anyone)? Any solutions or guesses on which of the issues it could be?
I've added a little poll above to help.
Thanks!
James
I've been struggling with the poor quality of the Cox HD picture and audio for a couple of years now. The picture gets blocky, and often the audio drops out for a few seconds (or more). It tends to happen once every 15-30 minutes (although sometimes it's OK for a few hours).
I have the Scientific Atlanta HD DVR box, model Explorer 8240HD, which I rent from Cox. It's installed in a place with reasonable air flow (doesn 't seem to overheat). I've had the box replaced 3 times, and technicians have come out 4 times. In their last visit the installed an amplifier, which helped for a while but now the problem is back.
Only the HD channels have problems. It doesn't seem to be any particular HD channel. The standard definition channels are fine, and I've resorted to recording both SD and HD in case the HD is unwatchable.
So, there are 3 possibilities:
1) Something wrong with my wiring or the signal strength (I have new RG6, but it's rather long - probably 150+ feet.). But the signal strength seems OK, between +2 and +7 dbmV according to the cable box, depending on the channel.
2) The Scientific Atlanta box is just a poor design and it's prone to these issues on HD. I've been thinking of getting a TIVO HD DVR, if this is indeed the case. But I wanted to make sure it was going to fix the problem before I spent the money.
3) The program material coming from Cox is bad on the HD channels, even before it gets to my house.
Has anyone on this forum experienced this (or know of anyone)? Any solutions or guesses on which of the issues it could be?
I've added a little poll above to help.
Thanks!
James
