Shaw cable problems ??

[fast95pony]

Over the last few months I've been noticing occaisonal signal problems on my TV . It's similar to a satellite feed thats not quite tuned right.
There's pixels and sound break in from another channel.

I have a normal Shaw cable feed,non-HD , just 1 TV.

Anyone else have similar problems ?? It appears to be signal problems from Shaw and not my TV.

[Grogador]

So you have no cablebox at all, just straight analog cable? What channels does it happen on? Breaks into little black boxes, sound cuts out? That would probably be a feed issue from like CFCN or the States or whoever, anything else may be signal related. Could be the TV as well? Details! :P

[fast95pony]

I do have a box for DVD and games.Maybe that's the problem. The signal issue happens occasionally on most channels,usually just broken up sound . It could be my TV.It's over 10 years old, but it appears to be a signal issue.
DVD's and PS2 / Wii play fine with no problems.Perhaps the box
weakens the signals ?? I've used the box for a while with no problems before.

[eblend]

could be just a bad cable, try getting a nicer cable. Can get a good one for $4 at XSCargo

[Grogador]

What kind of box? An RF modulator to put the dvd/gamez signals into the TV or something? Those do usually weaken the signal a bit, mostly just introduce noise into the line...

What brand of TV? (if it is RCA, please just jump off a bridge with it k thx :)

If it was a specific channel, we could blame the feed. If it is "most" channels, or a range like 13-15 or 32-36, it is probably the tuner (thing that "tunes" the channel frequency off the cable) in the TV that is going bad. If the cable signal was poor, the image would get fuzzy long before the sound would cut out.

Try using the VCR to tune channels, and feed straight composite/s-video into the TV if possible, or take the VCR's audio output straight to your amp. That way the VCR's tuner is doing all the work and you can eliminate one piece of the puzzle.

[Grogador]

Originally posted by eblend
could be just a bad cable, try getting a nicer cable. Can get a good one for $4 at XSCargo

There's nothing "good" at XSCargo and $4 won't buy you a "nice" cable for anything :P If you want your cables cleaned up, call Shaw for a free service call. They'll clean it up and tell you the TV is probably dying :D

[fast95pony]

Thanks for all the suggestions ! It's a Samsung .The tuner going bad makes sense. I'll try using the VCR.

Maybe I can convince the wife we need a flat screen now..:D

[DannyO]

I don't think its your TV, I've been having the same problem at home, 2 TVs one Sharp one Toshiba, both newish LCDs, both have non-HD terminals but both frequently have sound problems, I don't notice any video signal problems though, the sound is like its breaking up, or like a blip that you would hear if you listen to a dirty CD, gonna phone shaw when I got some free time.

EDIT: oh yea and both cables going to the TVs are very new, not high end, but not cheap either.

[max_boost]

I've been having problems with my PVR. The original one was working fine for over 2 years until recently I had issues so they gave me a new one and now the problem is back. Tech support is blaming the house 3 doors down (new house being built) because they dug up some line effecting my service? WTF? :nut:

[Neons4life]

I have the same issues with poor signal quality. I will lose picture and sound for a few seconds. And also get little blipps in sound. This happens on all channels for myself.

I have 2 new LCD TV's (Toshiba)
just your normal Shaw cable, no HD boxes, etc.

I am getting pissed off with the constant problems, thinking about going back to Telus.

Do you also have their home phone and internet provided through Shaw?

[Despair*]

My parents are running shaw digital at their house. Upstairs in their room they had a small tv with a reciever and downstairs they were running a big 46" LCD with the pvr/reciever.

Upstairs would run fine, but downstairs they were seeing pixels on certain channels along with the sound cutting out. After have shaw techs their a few times they finally determined it was the signal going to the pvr/reciever downstairs and I heard from my parents they installed a device to boost the signal. That seemed to solve the problem for them.