Comcast Audio Dropout - DFW

mike191

A few weeks ago the DFW area Comcast had a major problem and did some major work on the system. There were major video and audio dropouts in the local station HD broadcasts. After "fixing" the problem there seems to still be a mild case of "audio" dropouts in my area. Comcast does not find the issue. Are there any other DFW area users that have noticed HD audio dropout from the local HD station? InHD and others do not have any problems.

buckbuck

Pixilization (tiling), picture and sound dropout, lousy/grainy picture on both SD and Digital channels. It's going on in my area of the Denver area. I got the same "I know NOTHING" response, so I decided to make it a real issue.

I've talked to everybody including the general manager in Denver, Dan Blakeman. None of these contacts resulted in any fixes to these problems. Plus we have one added problem: a local Spanish language FM station apparently bleeds signal into a 20 channel range of Comcast channels, whether through the coax directly into the TV or via the digital box (Motorola 6412). They know about that one and throw up their hands saying they can't fix it.

I told them if they can't give me the service I'm paying for, they can discount me $25/month to keep me as a customer. I said it's my opinion that HD and digital cable is still experimental and I should not pay top dollar to be a beta tester. And they've given me this discount every month.

My thinking was if enough people insist on compensation it will ultimately affect their bottom line and stock price. Then there will be action.

Or so I thought.

Then we had a catastrophic failure while watching Fox HD channel with "24". The picture dropped out, then the screen turned green and the box reset itself. As I said, it was a catastrophic failure. It was also my last straw.

So I contacted the customer service manager in Denver, Alex Naro, and said if they didn't have these problems substantially cleared up by the end of February, I was going to the FCC, the Colo Public Utilities Commission, and the Attorney General's office. THAT got their attention it appears.

I've seen the Comcast guys around the neighborhood working on the outdoor boxes, on my hob, and in the last week things have improved substantially. Still have dropouts. Still have pixiling. But nothing approaching what was going on prior to the Super Bowl.

They still haven't dealt with the problem with the Spanish station. I'm still going to the FCC about that and will mention the other problems, too.

And my suggestion for anybody else having these problems is to get a discount as compensation and then threaten them with the FCC, PUC, and Attorney General's office.

We have to work together throughout the country to get these people to fix the system if it can be fixed. If not, to make sure we don't pay top $ for lousy service.

mike191

I will have to see how things go this week with Comcast. They issud a work order to investigate the audio drop issue in my area, or so I was told. If not improved by Wednesday, I was to get back with them.

If not improved, I will embark on the same things you mentioned.

mike191

Well, after a short period of good reception, the Comcast broadcast of local HD is again suffering from audio and also video dropouts. I have written a third service request and have had no responce yet. Considering I see no other complaints here it may be that the problem is restricted to the Grapevine area where my system is located. Time will tell.

Birchardi

The problem still exists with Richardson (TX) Comcast. Last night (3/10) we had continual audio dropout on KTVT (CBS) HD. We purchased a separate off air HD box to avoid these probloems in the future.

Birchardi

The problem still exists with Richardson (TX) Comcast. Last night (3/10) we had continual audio dropout on KTVT (CBS) HD. We purchased a separate off air HD box to avoid these probloems in the future.

mike191

What does the Comcast office give as a reason for the dropouts? CBS seems to be the worst in Grapevine as well. So far things get better for a few days then, like you, I get terrable drop outs. Last night (3/17)the dropouts started about 9:30pm.

mosfetman

Mike,
This is not a DFW/Comcast issue. It happens all over Comcast coverage areas. I had this problem in both the Seattle/Tacoma area and in a company apartment in the SF Bay area. You simply need to keep exchanging boxes till you find one that has few or no dropouts. In my home, my HT STB seldom has a dropout. The first 3 boxes in my office upstairs had audio dropouts at the rate of 3 an hour. Signal level was the same in both rooms. I suspected from the begining that the problem was related to discarded packets due to buffer overflows or bad checksums. A/D and DSP chips are notorius for inconsistency across the same part number. Check out the CD Audiophile forums where many people sample and test 100s of the same part number and same manufacturer (Burr Brown) to find a handful of chips that meet the specs. In other words...when you are sync'ing audio and video, the chips/software have a predetrmined amount of time to decode the digital data. If it can not be done in time, it must discard that packet and move on to the next. Hence a dropout in audio, pixelation in Video.

We all know that the STBs are pretty nasty H/W so I suspect that they will continue to feed us this trash because the 'average' user won't complain.
MosFetMan

davecramer74

what mos said. i had the same issue with my first box in my living room. Lucky for me, i had the same box upstairs, so it was easy to know it was the box.

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JP1inmichigan

I'm in the Detroit area and have been getting audio dropouts on a very regular basis since getting a new STB in mid-December. It is very annoying, to say the least. Also have a problem with frequent green screens, requiring shutting off the box and restarting it to get video back. I am not real pleased with Comcast.

Iron Clad Lou

here it the Greensburg PA area, dropouts are constant..it quite embarrassing....I think I may just call them and tell them I want a new box...

Iron Clad Lou

well, I called...and they dont have any replacement boxes...additionally, the woman on the phone told me to leave the DVR on all the time and the dropouts will go away....

Rogerdub

Here in Denver had tons of audio dropouts (only) during approx. half the commercials in the Super bowl. Not the game, just the commercials. It was on CBS-HD. Seldom happens on other channels.

Are the experts suggesting Comcast bought the boxes to lousy piecepart specs - wouldn't they be screening/improving as the production goes on. I'm afraid to roll the dice and demand another box - it could be worse that the current one I have.

1up5dn

I don't think the problem with the audio during the commercials was your box. I live outside of Phoenix and have Cox cable and I was getting the same thing. It would only happen during commercials and only on that channel. I assume it was a problem with their feed from Miami, but I am surprised more people aren't on here complaining about it. Maybe it was more localized than I thought.

Chris...

Lee Stewart

From all MY experience with HDTV. . . the bottom line is that it ain't perfect. Or is that perfected? (Comcast in FL)

Common Problems:

Audio Drop Outs - at least 3X per day

Picture Freeze - need to change the channel to release

Picture Breakup - just wait - it fixes itself

Picture Lag - seems to show in slow-mo every few seconds - change channel and go back - no more lag.

HD - SD -HD - broadcast starts on 16x9 HD - then goes to 4x3 with side bars then back to HD - Issue at HD provider - not cable carrier.

I watch nothing but HD on my system. Personally I believe much of this has to do with compression as cable trys to add channels. I have 2 6412's (III) and they both do the same thing...at the same time.

Still love HDTV but I never thought there would be so many problems with it. . . it has been over 6 years since it came out.

Lee