Channel 8 on Cox Cable-Reception

[Aa5drvr]

Is anyone else having problems with snowy reception on Channel 8 -KTUL on their Cox Cable (Non HD).
Seem several TV's in different homes all in south Tulsa are having issues.  HD is ok.

[RecycleMichael]

I have always had problems with snow on channel 8.

[DolfanBob]

I have Cox internet and their basic 11 Dollar service on my Kitchen T.V. And yes channel 8 is grainy. Has been for quite some time.

It looks great on my DirecTV though. Can I interest you boy's in switching over ?

[heironymouspasparagus]

Would love to have DirectTV!  Can you make it work for storm reports when it rains??

[nathanm]

If you have a digital cable ready TV, use the digital version, not the analog version. Cox has three versions of all the locals available in the clear. They have the analog signal, the digital SD signal, and the digital HD signal. Any of the boxes they've given out in the last 5-6 years will use the digital signal rather than analog.

If your TV isn't digital cable ready, you should be thinking of having a new set in your future, unless you don't mind having a box. Cox isn't going to keep analog around forever, although they do have 2 or 3 years left of their promised period of continuing to provide it. (much to my annoyance) It'll probably be a long, long time before either Cox or the satellite companies start providing boxes that don't support SD analog outputs, so if you don't mind paying for the privilege, keeping the analog sets won't be a problem.

[Hoss]

For those interested, Cox introduces 'Multiroom Shared DVR' this week, along with their new guide system.  This appears to be the first full rollout in country of this system, as they've been testing in other markets for some time now.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=52&articleid=20101127_52_E1_CUTLIN966869

[nathanm]

Hopefully it turns out better than at&t's first couple of tries. Supposedly they've finally got things working right, so Cox needs to come out strong.

[patric]

For those interested, Cox introduces 'Multiroom Shared DVR' this week, along with their new guide system.  This appears to be the first full rollout in country of this system, as they've been testing in other markets for some time now.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=52&articleid=20101127_52_E1_CUTLIN966869

That puts them only, what, two or three years behind DirecTV?
And that DVR looks like a VCR from the 80's.

[nathanm]

That puts them only, what, two or three years behind DirecTV?

The supreme irony is that they boxes they've been handing out have been capable of this since at least 2006, possibly longer.

[patric]

Would love to have DirectTV!  Can you make it work for storm reports when it rains??

"Rain fade" is when a dense storm cloud passes between you and the satellite, and attenuates the signal sometimes to the point that the receiver stutters or looses signal for a few seconds.  It takes a pretty active storm cloud to do that, but if you absolutely can't tolerate even a second of interruption, you can get an aftermarket dish that has more surface area and isnt attenuated as much. 

The way local meteorologists work here, if you miss a few seconds of a warning, it will be repeated enough times that you will eventually get it.

[Hoss]

The supreme irony is that they boxes they've been handing out have been capable of this since at least 2006, possibly longer.

Yup, but the problem was not having enough bandwidth in the TV stream to effectively use it.

I'd still rather use Cable vs Satellite simply because when it's windy or raining, bye-bye to a reliable picture on satellite.

[patric]

I'd still rather use Cable vs Satellite simply because when it's windy or raining, bye-bye to a reliable picture on satellite.

If you loose satellite picture because of wind, it wasnt installed right.  Call them out and insist they correct it for free.
Now, there's not much Cox customers can do but wait a few hours when a car slides into a utility pole and takes out the cable...

[Red Arrow]

If you loose satellite picture because of wind, it wasnt installed right.  Call them out and insist they correct it for free.
Now, there's not much Cox customers can do but wait a few hours when a car slides into a utility pole and takes out the cable...

My next door neighbor switched to satellite from Cox due to the amount of cars sliding into the local utility poles and taking out cable.  I just put up with it.

[nathanm]

Yup, but the problem was not having enough bandwidth in the TV stream to effectively use it.

The whole-home DVR uses MoCA (ethernet over coax, essentially) in the 1100-1250MHz range to transfer data from the DVR to the other boxes. If there had been software they liked, they could have done it in '06. The amount of bandwidth to your home (or the frequencies the cable plant supports outside your house) has nothing to do with it. That only matters for getting the programming to you.

DirecTV also uses MoCA to network the boxes, and U-Verse usually uses HomePNA over coax or twisted pair, but will use Ethernet if you have it available at all your TV locations.

It's not a network DVR like what CableVision has done, where there is no DVR box in your house, just a server at the headend.

[Hoss]

If you loose satellite picture because of wind, it wasnt installed right.  Call them out and insist they correct it for free.
Now, there's not much Cox customers can do but wait a few hours when a car slides into a utility pole and takes out the cable...

Then every body I talk to who has satellite obviously has idiots for installers, because there's not one of them that tell me that the higher winds don't knock their signal out.

But I'll take that random 'car into pole' which is usually fixed fairly quickly over the knowing that when rain or wind comes, I'll be having reception issues.