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Is MTS audio a victim of the latest cable company upgrading?

D

David Farber

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have Charter cable tv. I use the direct analog input to my Sony KV-27V36.
I use the analog signal because I like to be able to use the pip function on
my tv. Over the past few weeks I have noticed that the left channel audio is
very low and distorted, guessing about -30dB as compared to the right
channel, but only while tuned into the local Fox station. To make a very
long story short, the Charter tech comes to my house to tell me that some
tv's don't pick up the stereo signal properly and I should switch my tv to
mono. Huh??? His suggested fix? Use the cable box. I told him I don't want
to use the cable box. I'm happy with less cables, wires, and boxes going
through my system. At some point the tech tells me that all the analog
channels are being broadcast mono but are converted by Charter to a dual
mono signal so both speakers operate. However he says that they (Charter)
are in the process of upgrading the Fox station and are using one of the
stereo channels (supposedly the one that is down 30dB and distorted) to use
for other purposes. Again, huh? I've requested a call back from one of the
people in the Charter office that can give me a more logical technical
explanation. I'm not holding my breath. It's been a week since the tech's
visit here and after many phone calls to Charter and talking to their
friendly support staff, nobody has called me back from their technical
department.

By the way, I did call the local Fox station to see if they were having
transmission problems and I was able to talk to their chief engineer within
5 MINUTES. He told me their signal was fine and that it was Charter's
responsibility to take their 5.1 signal, decode it properly, then pass it on
to their subscribers.

So, I thought I'd ask the only place left on earth where you can get a
straight answer. That of course is s.e.r. Fellow techs, what the heck is
going on here?

Thanks for your reply.
 
H

Herman

Jan 1, 1970
0
David Farber said:
I have Charter cable tv. I use the direct analog input to my Sony KV-27V36.
I use the analog signal because I like to be able to use the pip function
on my tv. Over the past few weeks I have noticed that the left channel
audio is very low and distorted, guessing about -30dB as compared to the
right channel, but only while tuned into the local Fox station. To make a
very long story short, the Charter tech comes to my house to tell me that
some tv's don't pick up the stereo signal properly and I should switch my
tv to mono. Huh??? His suggested fix? Use the cable box. I told him I don't
want to use the cable box. I'm happy with less cables, wires, and boxes
going through my system. At some point the tech tells me that all the
analog channels are being broadcast mono but are converted by Charter to a
dual mono signal so both speakers operate. However he says that they
(Charter) are in the process of upgrading the Fox station and are using one
of the stereo channels (supposedly the one that is down 30dB and distorted)
to use for other purposes. Again, huh? I've requested a call back from one
of the people in the Charter office that can give me a more logical
technical explanation. I'm not holding my breath. It's been a week since
the tech's visit here and after many phone calls to Charter and talking to
their friendly support staff, nobody has called me back from their
technical department.

By the way, I did call the local Fox station to see if they were having
transmission problems and I was able to talk to their chief engineer
within 5 MINUTES. He told me their signal was fine and that it was
Charter's responsibility to take their 5.1 signal, decode it properly,
then pass it on to their subscribers.

So, I thought I'd ask the only place left on earth where you can get a
straight answer. That of course is s.e.r. Fellow techs, what the heck is
going on here?

Thanks for your reply.
Same problem in New Orleans with the Travel Channel. Local commercials boom
through, Travel Channel programming has to have volume turned way up.
 
W

William Sommerwerck

Jan 1, 1970
0
Universal Cable rule # 1 They don't care about audio, or visual quality,
and will always be geared to please the lowest common denominator.
Universal Cable rule # 2 Even if they DO have a high quality signal
available to them, they will compress/mangle it (1080i to 720i, 5.1 to
distorted L-R mono) to save bandwidth.
Universal Cable rule #3 Cable companies don't care if you have a
$10,000 home entertainment center. Can you see a picture? Good!,
and can you hear it? Good!, will always be good enough for them.
Universal Cable rule #4 Charge maximum amount of money for the
poorest choice of channels, with the worst possible signal quality.
Increase rates at will.

I have no idea what "universe" these "universal" rules are part of, but #1
through #3 don't apply to my local Comcast. 1080i images are presented as
1080i, and when I had more-than-basic service (I've had to cut back due to
unemployment), movies and cable-network programs were at least the quality
of BD.

NBC (both network and KING) are always 1080i, and the image quality is a
consistent knock-out.

I'm watching on Pioneer's last 60" KURO.

I've never connected the audio to my main system, so I can't comment on the
sound. I normally listen through a pair of KLH Audio 900B speakers connected
directly to the set, which I bought at Best Buy a few years back for $15 --
for both.
 
D

David Farber

Jan 1, 1970
0
David said:
I have Charter cable tv. I use the direct analog input to my Sony
KV-27V36. I use the analog signal because I like to be able to use
the pip function on my tv. Over the past few weeks I have noticed
that the left channel audio is very low and distorted, guessing about
-30dB as compared to the right channel, but only while tuned into the
local Fox station. To make a very long story short, the Charter tech
comes to my house to tell me that some tv's don't pick up the stereo
signal properly and I should switch my tv to mono. Huh??? His
suggested fix? Use the cable box. I told him I don't want to use the
cable box. I'm happy with less cables, wires, and boxes going through
my system. At some point the tech tells me that all the analog
channels are being broadcast mono but are converted by Charter to a
dual mono signal so both speakers operate. However he says that they
(Charter) are in the process of upgrading the Fox station and are
using one of the stereo channels (supposedly the one that is down
30dB and distorted) to use for other purposes. Again, huh? I've
requested a call back from one of the people in the Charter office
that can give me a more logical technical explanation. I'm not
holding my breath. It's been a week since the tech's visit here and
after many phone calls to Charter and talking to their friendly
support staff, nobody has called me back from their technical
department.
By the way, I did call the local Fox station to see if they were
having transmission problems and I was able to talk to their chief
engineer within 5 MINUTES. He told me their signal was fine and that
it was Charter's responsibility to take their 5.1 signal, decode it
properly, then pass it on to their subscribers.

So, I thought I'd ask the only place left on earth where you can get a
straight answer. That of course is s.e.r. Fellow techs, what the heck
is going on here?

Thanks for your reply.

I was finally put in contact with Charter's corporate office. Soon after,
another Charter representative from my local office called me and he wanted
to send out their chief tech to inspect the audio problem. Keep in mind that
this would have been the third time a tech would have I told them to save
their time and just figure out what was wrong with the audio coming out of
their offices. He finally relented and alerted the engineers to what I was
saying. And what do you know, the problem got fixed. It only took eight days
after I first reported the problem to have even someone consider the fact
that the problem might be a Charter malfunction. So much time wasted.
 
D

David

Jan 1, 1970
0
I was finally put in contact with Charter's corporate office.
Soon after,
another Charter representative from my local office called me and
he wanted
to send out their chief tech to inspect the audio problem. Keep
in mind that
this would have been the third time a tech would have I told them
to save
their time and just figure out what was wrong with the audio
coming out of
their offices. He finally relented and alerted the engineers to
what I was
saying. And what do you know, the problem got fixed. It only took
eight days
after I first reported the problem to have even someone consider
the fact
that the problem might be a Charter malfunction. So much time
wasted.

--

David Farber
Los Osos, CA
***
I had a similar experience except this time with the power
company. I check my voltage regularly and several months ago, it
started varying widely over a day. It could go as high as 134
volts at times and then drop back to 122 or so. I called the
power company and they said they would check it out. They came
over and measured 124 volts, said it was in tolerance, and left.
I let it go for a few days and called again when the voltage was
132 volts. I mentioned that the voltage can change hour to hour
by 10 volts and that I knew that I did not have a high impedance
neutral since it was within a volt on each side. They came out
again and by then the voltage was back to 124. They tested the
neutral and it was fine and again 124 was in tolerance. Over the
next several days I created plots of the voltage over time. One
day the voltage seemed to waver between 128 and 132 volts for
several hours. I called again and said I have plots of the
voltage, but they insisted that THEY have to measure the voltage.
I checked the voltage while still on the phone and I said come
out now since I was reading 130. An hour later, they came and
measured 128 and said I had a problem. It was traced to a faulty
capacitor bank on the distribution feeder An actual engineer
called later to explain the situation and asked me to immediately
report future problems. For the last week the voltage has been
stable between 118 and 121. The company could have saved several
truck rolls if they just believed me or at least put a recording
voltmeter on the line. I think there is a built in assumption
that the entire public is technically illiterate and they treat
everyone accordingly.

David
 
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