Brevard (CFL?) Color change!

[jcarrera]

Tonight, sometime before 8PM, the color changed...well, not really color, but color plus brightness plus contrast plus ???????. I'll maybe call it intensity of the lighter areas? The picture is waaaay brighter...and washed out due to the excessive brilliance. I checked the TV settings and they are the same as before.

People's faces if in studio lights have hot spots and highlights; also, skin tone is way lighter.

This is sooooo aggravating because I had spent hours a couple of months ago adjusting the TV settings (Picture, Brightness, Color, Hue, Sharpness) to get the picture well tuned, and it was great. Now, shot. What the........?

I have three custom settable selection bins for the color settings, so I went to the third bin that I don't use and tried to get the pic back to how it was before. No dice. Not even close, no matter how I change the five control parameters.


Rebooting the SA8300HD made no difference.

 

[jcarrera]

I just figured out a way to describe it. It is like the picture is being processed through a "video equalizer" and bright pixels are amplified, and the brighter the pixel, the more amplification it receives.

LATER: I've got another hour in watching and fiddling. This is awful. Some scenes come on screen that are unwatchable. There was just one on with a person that had a light coat with white shirt. Oh gosh. All detail in the coat/shirt was completely gone. It looked like it had been air brushed brilliant white all over. And a picture with sun on a face is scary.

LATER LATER: Just recalled something. I absolutely believe something is going on at the head end. I now recall that a week or two ago, I asked my wife, didn't the TV picture seem clearer and sharper. She said maybe, but I was certain there was a change. THAT change was a positive one. This one is NOT!! The combination of these happening convinces me that something is happening at the head end or somewhere along the path, and I bet its changes at the head end. The last one really has messed me up.

LATER LATER LATER 5-25-07, 1815E: Still continues. And the bedroom TV (straight cable) is clearly "hotter" as well, so it is coming in the signal that way, not something the box is doing. Is it possible for cable signal to be too "hot."

 

[Khandurian]

Yes, it is very possible for you it to be too "hot" as you describe it. I do know they were in the process of doing line balancing in a couple of areas, I wonder if you were in one of those areas.

Ok, here's what you can do for now. When BHN installed your cable, did they install an amplifier? If so, what size? 4 port? 8 port? If they installed a 4 port amp, go outside, disconnect the amp, and hook the one line from the tv directly to the drop.

Make sure of course, that thats not the line thats powering the amp as well. If you have done this, did you notice that the picture is now back to normal?

Of course, you dont have to do all this if you don't want to. You can always call and get a service call and they will come out and do the same thing for you.

It's very doubtfull that if you call they will know if your area is one of the areas that got re-balanced.

Well, after reading your post a little more closer, it could also be an line amp down the line about to go bad. Crap could be anything! Put in a service call!

 

[jcarrera]

K, the amp I have feeds only the main family room TV with the 8300HD box; it does not boost the feed to the bedroom TV which also has experienced the change.

Nevertheless, I decided to try taking it out of the line into FR TV. I encountered something very odd. As I was disconnecting the coaxes, I felt a strong tingle--not from the power feed coax, but the other two (to wall and to 8300). So I got out my multimeter and there is 80 VAC between the shells of the two ends. That doesn't seem right at all. Bear in mind, the amp with its pwr feed is laying on the floor at this point--not involved at all.

 

[Khandurian]

That definitely is not good. Go outside, disconnect all the lines, and then test to see if that voltage is present on the line coming directly from the pole/ped. If it is, I highly suggested leaving it disconnected and calling BHN immediately and getting a tech out there.

If it is not, then disconnect each line to find out which line is feeding that voltage to the system. Once you have found the line that is supplying the voltage, then goto that room and disconnect everything off that line, pop back outside see if voltage is still present.

If voltage is still present, it needs to be replaced. If voltage is gone, then it could be the tv/vcr/box thats faulting.

 

[stevenl]

do you have problems with your lights at all flickering? Or sometimes going dim? It could be a problem with your power neutral as well, what happens when that starts to go bad then your cable line turns into the new neutral which certainly is not good.

and their should never be a reason why you need a house amp to power 1 single tv. Im wonderinf if what you call the amp is simpley the power supply. The amp should look almost like a splitter with multiple lines connected to it (a larger version) Their should be 3 items with the amp if remotely powerd. First a "Power Inserter" which looks like a two way splitter, The power pack which looks like a phone charger and plugs into the power inserter, Then elsewhere the amp itself.

 

[jcarrera]

Interesting you should mention the power neutral. That was just replaced by FPL about two weeks ago. Actually, the whole drop was replaced due to floating neutral. House power indeed was funny while that was floating, but new drop is higher gauge wire than original install. While it was bad, we had a house appliance replaced because it wasn't working up to snuff. Now I'm sure it was the power line--not the appliance.

As to the amp, it was put in by a BHN tech several years ago on a call for problem unremembered. It is an Electroline, similar to the EDA 2100 now shown on their site, but exterior form looks slightly different. 3 ports: pwr-in, RF in, RF out to box/TV. The pwr-in wart is plugged into a pwr strip inside the entertainment center cabinet. Coax carrying the power runs from the wart to the amp right behind/outside the cabinet.

Summary, there is the voltage between the shields of the line coming in and the one going to the 8300 input. It is not the house neutral causing it; that's now fine.

 

[stevenl]

The device you speak of ports: pwr-in, RF in, RF Is the Power inserter not an amplifier from the way you descibe it perhaps the amp was removed awhile ago and you still have the power adapter?

Well it could be a 1 port amp.. The three ports "RF In" "Power in" and should have "RF out / PWR IN" on the same port right?

 

[casper04]

lol.... this really doesn't seem like an amp or power issue... this is not analog tv, where it would definitely affect it.
You either had a power outage and had ur settings reset... but u seem to be sure they're the same. Or there's just a change in the headend

Honestly I dont know that much about digital simulcast to tell u specifics, but i see this stuff in the field everyday and i've had some perty picky customers

 

[jcarrera]

<g> Well, I will admit to the "picky" part! However...until this happened, I was totally satisfied--indeed--very happy with the PQ. I had spent hours tweaking the picture controls on the TV and had it set to provide great picture. So, at that point the pickyness was satisfied. Now I am back to being picky because I pay a lot, it was good, and now it isn't--with no change on my part.

Some more thinking: Since both the analog and digital TVs were affected, and the "level" of the signal would not affect the digital picture (right?), then the change had to happen in equipment before being inserted into the cable distribution system. Because it could not be an overall amplification issue.

 

[Khandurian]

So why are we straying away from the fact that he has measured 80 volts AC on his line?

 

[jcarrera]

I guess it was a minor stray...I was just trying to answer casper and clarify some of my thinking. But I agree. The 80VAC between the two shields is way wrong. I am going to call in a ticket probably tomorrow. We've got a lot going on right now --company coming, refrigerator being delivered, one to get rid of, busy busy.

 

[jcarrera]

New info...it has changed again since about 5/30. Now the extreme hot light/white colors are much toned done, and, with that in balance, overall color seems better than before the change that caused the hot whites.

I feel, but cannot prove, that BHN made some change somewhere that caused the problem, realized it was not done right, and corrected it.

I have not yet called in a ticket about the voltage between the cable shields (when it is separated) but will do so.

 

[Khandurian]

Since we now have a change back down to "normal", retest to see if that 80vac is still present.

 

[jcarrera]

Since we now have a change back down to "normal", retest to see if that 80vac is still present.

Yeah, good idea. I will do that, but can't probably until Sunday (be gone).

BTW, as I said earlier, after the latest "correction" (my word) by BHN, the color is approaching excellent, and as you may have gathered from my past posts, it takes a lot for me to say that. I do notice that, on shows with cameras switching around to face shots of different people, sometimes there is a significant difference in the color. It is very noticeable when they use a split screen.

 

[jcarrera]

Since we now have a change back down to "normal", retest to see if that 80vac is still present.

6/3/07, 1840E...70.9VAC

 

[jcarrera]

BHN tech came out this morning. I showed him the voltage between the two shells of the connectors and he proceeded for awhhile measuring voltages between shell and center wire at places in the system--all the while talking on the phone to somebody in BHN elsewhere about it. ???? I mentioned the problem was voltage on the shield, not the center conductor...oh, well.

Anyway, after another period of measurements, he finally did what I suggested at the beginning: disconnect all my downstream equipment and see it voltage still there. It was, so it was obviously coming off the shell of the Cable-in connector on the 8300HD box. He brought in another one, and it was putting out the voltage too!!! Houston, SA has a problem! He said he would present the findings to his supervisor.

He did make me a longer coax from the amp to the Cable-in connector on the 8300HD box, which I much appreciated.

 

[stevenl]

That doesnt make much sense, The box shouldnt pass AC, on the coax ports. We use the exact same box the 8300hd dvr and never had such a problem (by never I mean you wouldnt find 2 boxes next to each other who do it) Their has to be another issue it seems the guy who came to your house more then likely a new guy who (as most service techs in BHN) know nothing about AC voltage, as they never work with it. Id hihgly recomend calling again and asking for a "Priority tech" and asking them to file a complaint on your behalf to get a senior tech out who can resolve the issue for you.

 

[jcarrera]

I agree That doesnt make much sense, but it is true nevertheless. I was watching the meaasurements. With my box, everyhing disconnected on the output side, a coax attached to the Cable-in port---

BHN--------- ----------DVR Cable-in port

The voltage appears between the shield outer shells on the coax connectors at the gap point above. There was no voltage to ground from the shield of the lefthand portion. He checked that. Further, when the cable from the DVR was disconnected, the voltage disappeared (of course). So, the box is putting the voltage onto the coax shield at the box. A second box did the exact same thing, although the voltage was a different level (still in the ten's of volts).

 

[jcarrera]

Incidentally, the color has changed back to OK--not great. Not to the hot whites, but back to where it was a month ago. Sheesh this is frustrating.