From: hm002b@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (PRIMUS SUCKS!)
Newsgroups: rec.video
Subject: Re: Crummy CATV -- Who's fault?
Date: 6 Jan 93 21:08:58 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

In article <1993Jan6.172836.19611@cs.rochester.edu> ferguson@cs.rochester.edu (George Ferguson) writes:
>I'm embroiled in a "discussion" with my local cableco (Rochester, NY)
>about picture quality, which is lacking. I'm hoping that some of you
>are more knowledgeable than I about this, and can either set me
>straight or give me the ammo I need.
>
>Anyway, the situation is that our reception on cable of the off-air
>stations has gotten intolerable. Something happened when they were
>working on the line behind our place, and there are now significant
>ghost images on the off-air channels, which are at the same selector
>position on cable. I complained, and the cableco said that levels were
>down while they upgraded (to fiber, I think). They said it would
>improve.
>
>Needless to say, it didn't. I called again, and they sent a guy over.
>He plugged a 75 ohm terminator into the back of the set and, sure
>enough, you could see the off-air picture. He therefore blamed the
>shielding in the set. I countered with the fact that it seemed strange
>that it should all of a sudden lose shielding when something changed
>out back, and further I didn't see how the shielding could "change".
>He said that, no, there were mechanical parts inside the set (a JVC
>21", no moving parts that I can see or hear) and that they "wore out".
>This seems fishy; what's the deal on the shielding?
>
>I will note that, as expected, watching through my very new JVC vcr,
>with the TV at channel 3, the picture was fine. Last weekend, however,
>I was getting ghosting even through it! That hasn't reappeared, and
>I'd be hard-pressed to demonstrate it for a repairman!
>
>Anyway, my TV aside, I said that it seemed to me that if even if they
>were in spec, if a significant number of customers were suddenly
>complaining, they ought to do something about it. Well, of course, the
>service guy could care less. He agreed that it would be nice to not
>spend the day telling people their sets are "broken". Apparently, what
>he said and from personal experience, many people are having trouble.
>The cableco blames the whole thing on the off-air channels wanting to
>be at the same selector position.
>
>With a rate hike kicking in this month, I'm pissed about the crummy
>service we get from these people in almost every area. Picture quality
>is just the latest. They have also reneged on committments to access
>programming and the like.
>
>Apologies for the diatribe, I would appreciate any help.
>
>George
>-- 
>George Ferguson                 ARPA: ferguson@cs.rochester.edu
>Dept. of Computer Science       UUCP: rutgers!rochester!ferguson
>University of Rochester         VOX:  (716) 275-2527
>Rochester  NY  14627-0226       FAX:  (716) 461-2018
Hey George I also live in Rochester, I attend the U of R. I live out in the
suburbs and we also get GRC's cable. I must say that on most of our TV's the
channels do NOT ghost. I have been very pleased with GRC's service. All the
channels come in near perfect except for C-SPAN. It is probably something
with the way your cable is brought in. I HIGHLY doubt it is your TV.
Newsgroups: rec.video